Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Salt Dough Dinosaur Fossils - South Dakota

Earlier in the week, I saw salt dough creations at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and it reminded me that salt dough has been on my to do list for a long time.  Then, I happened to see salt dough dinosaur fossils at Miller Moments and knew we had to make some of our own since South Dakota has been a hot spot for dinosaur fossils and we are currently studying South Dakota.

This is the recipe we used (from Miller Moments):

1 cup of salt
2 cups of flour
1 cup of warm water

Mix thoroughly until dough consistency. Roll out and create dinosaur footprints by stomping toy dinosaurs in the dough!



To dry, place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees until dry. Or just leave out for several days until dry.



While C and R worked on making their fossils, we listened to various artists singing original songs about the T. rex named Sue on a CD we borrowed from the library.


Overall, the CD was pretty good in that it told the whole story of how Sue was found and how she eventually made it to the Field Museum in Chicago.  I don't really care for most of the music, but the lyrics are very educational.  My favorite song from the collection is How Do You Get to South Dakota?  C and R like all of the songs.

15 comments:

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

I saw that CD, or one like it, at our library too, and wondered if it would be any good. I did find a children's book by Judith Williams called Dinosaur Jane, a young T-Rex found in Montana, but in the same formation that runs into South Dakota.

phasejumper said...

We love salt dough-used it to make our Easter place settings!
I've never heard of that cd, thanks for the heads up!

Sarah said...

I love that you used the toys to make the footprints. I totally would have gone with something much more complicated and stress-inducing like making little foam footprints to stamp into the dough. I never think of the common sense approach until someone puts it in front of my face like this. :)

Jen said...

We did something similar recently, but we used plaster of paris. My daughter tried to make fossil markings with leaves, rocks, etc. The dinosaur prints are great.

Jen

Jen said...

We did something similar recently, but we used plaster of paris. My daughter tried to make fossil markings with leaves, rocks, etc. The dinosaur prints are great.

Jen

Brimful Curiosities said...

Salt dough is so useful! Love the footprints. It's been awhile since I visited Sue.

Unknown said...

LOVE this activity! We tried to make fossils out of used coffee grinds once, and I think due to the humidity, they N-E-V-E-R dried properly, leaving us with a gooey mess...

THIS idea works a lot better than ours did! :0)

Debbie said...

Love your idea of making foot prints with their toys.

Lil' Scholars University said...

Love this! Thank you! Another great activity is a dino in a paper mache balloon egg! The kids love to care for their baby dino! :)

Miller Moments said...

so fun! Yours turned out just like ours-with the little foot prints! :)

Sherri said...

This is a great activity...as all of yours are!

Jenny said...

How fun!

I've been to South Dakota and it's awesome!

Kelly said...

Great idea for salt dough! I'll have to look for this cd, Little J loves dinos.
Little Wonders' Days

Ticia said...

I need to try this on the kids. They'd probably LOVE it!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

One of these days we will make the prints too. It's a great idea. I meant to look for T-Rex books - I am sure daughter will love them, since she insists that T-Rex is her favorite dinosaur.