Excavating cake? Why not! Kids spoon into some layers and artifacts during this tasty hands-on activity. The cake, a simulated archaeological dig, is the object of observation and discussion.

Concepts

archaeological digs, archaeology, excavation, stratigraphy, teamwork, artifacts

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Tie the cake dig into your current unit of study by burying laminated artifacts from the particular point in time or history
• Create smaller simlutions by making layered cupcakes

Classroom Considerations

• There is quite a bit of preparation necessary for this lesson, including baking several cake layers and carefully creating an edible dig site
• While designed for very young archaeologists, this activity could be adapted for older learners
• Depending on the dietary restrictions of your students, you may need to adapt the cake recipe or try out a different simulated dig
• See the materials for a teacher reference page on simulated digs
• If not everything you put into the excavation site is edible, make sure to keep a close eye on youngsters as they munch

Pros

• This activity is really fun and engaging while still simulating what could be a fairly realistic dig site
• Cross-curricular activity covers both science and social studies
• Encourages pupils to observe closely and be very careful with their actions
• Provides step-by-step instructions for how to create the cake dig site as well as detailed materials lists

Cons

• None