Dinosaur fossils for budding explorers

This activity will bring lots of joy to your little one who loves exploring and playing with the different dinos! Your toddler can be involved in this activity from the start to finish by helping you make a classic kids ingredient: salt dough. Once your fossils have baked to solid in the oven, or dried for a couple of days, you can play with or paint them together with your toddler. This is a great activity to get your toddler involved in a process, but also to encourage patience to enjoy the fossil when it is ready!

What you’ll need

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• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 cup of water
• Red, blue, and yellow food colouring (3 drops of each)
• Dinosaur figurines

Method

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1. First, mix the salt and flour in a bowl until blended well
2. Add the food colouring to the water and mix it well until it becomes brown
3. Add the water to the dough, a little at a time until the dough forms
4. Next, remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead for at least 5 minutes, the longer you knead it the smoother it will be
5. Once the dough is ready, grab your rolling pin and roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 inch thick
6. Use a glass or round cooking cutter to cut out circles, making sure they are big enough for your Dinos
7. Get the Dinos you want to use and gently push them on their side into one of the salt dough circles
8. Let the fossils air dry for a couple of days, or bake them at 200 degrees for 3 hours, the higher the heat the more brown the fossils will be

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Development

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• Patience
• Fine motor skills
• Creativity & imagination

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