My son and I had a lot of fun making dinosaur fossils for his DINO-mite dinosaur party. This was a great craft for us to do together because they are very easy and inexpensive to make. You really can't mess them up! We hid some fossils in the plastic eggs for our dinosaur egg hunt and placed the others on the tables for added decoration.
All you need to make these is a container of play sand, some plastic dinosaurs, and plaster of paris.
The sand should be about an inch to an inch and a half deep.
Mix in a small amount of water to moisten the sand and make it hold the shape of whatever you push into it. Once your sand is prepared, prepare your plaster of paris by following the directions on the package.
Lightly push a plastic dinosaur into the sand and carefully remove it.
It should leave the imprint of the dinosaur behind, if it doesn't, mix a little more water into the sand and try it again.
Using a spoon, spoon enough plaster of paris to fill the indents I the sand.
Repeat each step for each fossil, moving quickly so that the plaster of paris doesn't start to dry out and thicken. If the plaster of paris in the bowl begins to thicken, you can add a little more water to thin it out. Once you are finished, let the plaster of paris dry completely, I let them sit for a few hours to be safe.
Remove the dried globs of plaster of paris from the sand.
Using a paint brush, brush off all of the excess sand.
Look at those fossils!
You could make these using anything you like to make the imprint and create fossils of all types of things! Think animals, footprints, sea shells, leaves, and more!
