Fossil Finders

Fossil Finders EYFS/KS1/Year 3

Duration: 1 hour, max capacity 35 students

Discover prehistoric worlds through playful and imaginative activities. Students will make a plaster cast fossil, examine rocks, search for fossils in dig-pits, and find out about some of the amazing creatures that once roamed the Earth.

Key Words:

Fossils, Dinosaurs, Palaeontology, Fossil dig pit, Fossil casting, Time, Earth, Rocks, Extinction

Learning objectives

EYFS/KS1/Year 3:

Recognise that long ago the world looked very different to today, and that many living things looked different too

Understand that we can learn about these ‘long ago’ living things by looking at fossils

Many living things that lived a long time ago and now extinct

Understand that fossils are the preserved remains or traces of living things that lived long ago

Understand how some fossils are formed from a mould and a cast

Experience how everyday materials such as plasticine to make a mould and plaster used to make a cast

Identify people who look for and study fossils as palaeontologists

Year 3:

Understand that rocks can tell us about the environmental and climatic conditions at the time they were formed

Understand that fossils can be formed by different processes

Appreciate that we usually find fossils in rocks

Content

EYFS/KS1/Year 3: 

Investigate fossils and other artefacts using their sense of touch

Examine impressive fossils that illustrate a range of different formation processes

Search for buried fossils like a palaeontologist

Make a plaster cast of a fossil

EYFS/KS1:

Think about what ancient animals might have sounded like

Year 3:

Identify rock types and how they were formed

Curriculum Links:

EYFS: Communication and language. Listening, Attention and Understanding, Speaking

Physical Development. Moving and handling

Personal, social, and emotional development. Self-Regulation, Managing Self, Building Relationships, Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills

Understanding the World. Past and Present

Expressive arts and design. Creating with Materials

KS1 Science: Working scientifically. Asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways. Observing closely, using simple equipment. Identifying and classifying. Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions

Year 1: Everyday materials. Identifying and name a variety of everyday materials. Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

Year 2: Living things and their habitats. Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive 

KS2 Year 3: Rocks. Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties

Year 3: Rocks. Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock

Year 3: Rocks. Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter

Potential Hazards and accessibility

Students will be using dental plaster and sand pits, and handling small fossils, rocks,  and shells

Some of the fossils are heavy but will be examined safely over a table