• A few weeks back we went to a local museum which featured a fossil exhibit. As a mother of two little boys, you can imagine that this was a huge hit for us. We had to continue to circle back to look at the various fossils several times throughout the day.

    When we returned home, their imaginations were in full speed. They went straight out into our backyard to dig for their very own fossils. After they went to bed, my husband and I thought it would be awesome to make some fossils that we could “bury” in the yard for them to find.

    The first thing you need to do is make some salt dough. Salt dough is extremely versatile, we use it all the time. My basic recipe is simple:
    4 cups flour
    1 cup salt
    2 cups warm water

    Mix all ingredients together until a dough is formed. Knead it a bit until it is all together, then roll it out with a rolling pin. I rolled ours to about 1/4 inches thick. To make our general fossil shapes, I used a biscuit cutter to make circles. Use whatever you have on hand, just bear in mind the types of fossil you’re making. Don’t make anything too big or too small.

    At this point we took small dinosaur and animal toys to imprint the dough. Press it in about half way though. My husband, who is far more artistic than I am, used kitchen utensils to carve more realistic fossils. I however, stuck with sticking small toys into the dough.

    Bake your dough for one hour at 170-180 degrees. Whichever is the lowest that your oven will go. After an hour in the oven your fossils will be nice and rock hard.

    Allow them to cool completely. Now to the fun part! Burying them! We placed a few in our sand box, and some in random places in our yard. They weren’t buried deep, I didn’t want giant holes in our yard.

    I cannot even begin to express how much fun my kids had on their fossil hunt!  Who doesn’t love finding a hidden treasure?

    After they were all found and accounted for, we allowed the kids to paint them. Over all a fun day for everyone!