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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

ACTIVITY 6: MAKE A FOSSIL MOLD AND CAST and ACTIVITY 7: HOW BIG WERE PREHISTORIC ANIMALS?

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Instructions for two terrific ancient history lessons for your primary paleontologists are provided in this resource. The first involves the creation of fossil cast replicas using plaster of Paris. The directions are detailed, but the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils!

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students explore what fossils are, how they are formed, what different types there are and why they are significant to both our present and past geology history. They participate in a hands on fossil observation of their choice and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Formation

For Teachers 6th - 8th
A fossil is worth a thousand words! Individuals craft their own amber fossil of an insect in addition to molds and casts of seashells. A third activity takes the lesson a notch higher: Learners measure stride lengths between tracks and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Fossils

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders examine the differences between cast and mold fossils. They discuss geological time and how many fossils are millions of years old, then create a cast fossil using clay and a shell, and a mold fossil using a shell and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Candle-Wax Fossils: Casts, Molds, and Impressions

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students examine and define fossils. They create their own impressions and molds in clay and candle wax, making external and internal molds.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Faux Fossil Fun

For Teachers K - 8th
Elementary schoolers investigate how fossils are created by reproducing the process of creating an impression and filling it with a hardening material. The art lessons from this source are just fantastic! The lesson plan is well-written...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

White Glue Fossils: Casts, Molds, and Impressions

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Students make impressions and molds in clay and them make casts with glue. After the glue dries students remove their fossils.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils and our Past (part 1 of 3)

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders investigate how some extinct organisms resemble organisms that are still alive today. They watch and discuss the Magic School Bus video about fossils, then create clay fossil imprints, matching the imprints to plaster of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What are the Different Kinds of Fossils?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students examine different types of fossils. In this fossil lesson, students investigate the attributes of mold fossils, trace fossils, cast fossils, and true form fossils. Students create their own fossil samples.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Identifying Fossils

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students create model fossils.  In this fossils lesson, students view pictures of fossils and compare and contrast these fossils.  Students read about fossils and create a database chart with the facts they learn.  Students construct...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Studying Fossils: Hominoid Skull Comparison

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners collect data on the differences in Hominid skulls using acrylic casts of fossil skulls. They measure a series of structures on skulls from six different species then use the data to determine evolutionary relationships between...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Impressions of Ancient Life

For Teachers K - 6th
Young scholars make a mold using Plaster of Paris and then make a cast using that same mold. They pick a fossil and describe how it looks. They write a fictionalized story about its life, or burial. (
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Fossils

For Students 7th - 9th
In this fossil worksheet, students match six terms with their definitions about types of fossils and they circle the proper term to make nine statements true about preservation of fossils.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Adventure

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners create a book about the process of a dinosaur becoming a fossil.  In this earth science instructional activity, students are taught about fossils and create a book that tells what happened to a dinosaur's bones after they die.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science: Making Trace Fossils

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore types of fossils and discover how sediment affects fossil preservation. They focus their study on trace fossils and create their own using sediment, water, and a small organism such as a snail or lizard. Students use...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make Words

For Teachers 6th - 9th
For this making words worksheet, students make as many English words as they can from the letters found only in the word Ichthyosaurus.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Fossils

For Students 7th - 12th
In this fossils worksheet, students review the different types of fossils including index and trace fossils. This worksheet has 6 matching and 9 true or false questions.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make a Cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex Fossil

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders examine the formation of fossils and list the different types. They make cast model of a dinosaur fossil. They write about conditions that are necessary for fossils to form and create a model of a buried fossil.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Adventure

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students work as a class to write a general definition of fossil based on their discussion and examine pictures of the different types of fossils. Once discussion is complete, they write and illustrate a book about a T Rex that has died...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Back to the Past

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students label fossil imprints. In this Geology lesson, students view fossil imprints of several items. Students explain what a fossil is.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Fossils: Clues to Ancient Life

For Teachers 4th - 8th
You can make your students amateur paleontologists with great fossil lesson plans.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders do 5 different lab stations to explore rocks, minerals, and fossils.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

LESSON PLANS (print version) pdf What is a Fossil?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students can better explain how mould and cast fossils occur when they make their own cast fossils using plaster of Paris and objects such as shells, bone or even their own hand or footprint.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Young scholars discuss the work of a paleontologist and examine several fossils and books on paleontology. They use clay and Plaster of Paris to create a cast of an object and compare this activity to the formation of fossils in nature.