Fossiling for Children

[minnbuckeye]

The fossil/rock club that I belong to was asked to be part of a craft show in Morrison, Iowa this past weekend. The president asked for assistance  months ago. I did not volunteer initially because it was a 2.5 hour drive for me. But as of Thursday, help was still needed. What I didn't realize was that in addition to my physical attendance, I was to put together a project for children!!! Now this is Thursday evening and I needed to be in Iowa Saturday. The president informed me that last year 200 youngsters went through their set up. So here is my project and results: 

 

 I decided to make 200 rocks full of fossils for the kids to open. Having never done this before and only 24 hours to prepare, I was a bit nervous. The following recipe was found on TFF.

 

 

 

 @caldigger made the suggestion of using dry wall powder instead of plaster of paris. I used both. Plaster of paris dried faster and was a harder finished product. Dry wall powder, on the other hand, being markedly cheaper, $9 for a bag that made me grunt carrying it to the car, and the ease of breaking open for the children, I would recommend it over plaster of paris. As for sand and the drywall powder, different proportions were tried but I felt a 1 part sand to 2 parts drywall powder worked the best.

 

 Bright and early Friday morning I collected enough loose fossils to embed in the plaster. This was my work site. Notice the bottle of cinnamon, a suggestion for coloring the fossils in the article. Save the cinnamon for what it was intended for, human consumption. I will speak on coloring the "rocks" later: 

 

 And the work begins. First blobs of plaster were laid out. DO NOT PLACE ON NEWSPAPER!!!! Use wax paper. The children were quick to point out that there was lettering on their "rocks". The dye of the newspaper bled through onto the plaster. Next, liberally wet your hands with Pam cooking oil then grab a handful of fossils. Roll them around in your hands for awhile until coated lightly with the oil. Push each into the plaster. This did wonders at keeping plaster residue off of the fossils.

 

 

 

  At this point, I tried many ways to cover the fossils up. My best and quickest results came by letting the bottom plaster firm just a bit and then pouring a thinner layer of plaster over the top.  

 

   

 

Now to speak on coloring the "rocks". I tried cinnamon, I tried painting. Neither technique thrilled me. And to paint 200, not going to happen. So I was thinking of what to do when I looked down at the "filthy"bowl of water that I would rinse my brush out in. Why not dip a nice white rock into it and see what happened. It worked GREAT at instilling a fairly natural color to the stark white and one can color 200 items in about 5 minutes. I experimented with different colors in the water. The examples in the back of the picture below  came out the best. I did find that to create a little 2 tone look, lightly brush the colored rock with a different color while it is still wet from it's bath and it  added to it's look tremendously. Here is my first 100. And yes there are a few pink ones. I always wanted my daughter to be a "tom boy", but she grew up a "girly girl". She is now grown and on her own and we recently took her bed out of her bedroom. I found about 20 small "diamonds" in the carpet where the bed used to rest. Why not add these to some pink plaster (along with some fossils). They went like hotcakes and brought smiles when opened. And in all honesty, the children chose the pink and white samples over the browns. So in the future, maybe I would not try and mimic rock. And make orange,  green, red, pink, blue, and yellow ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[minnbuckeye]

Bright and early Saturday morning I headed to Morrison. When I arrived, I couldn't believe it. Morrison was a town of 94 people!! And we are expecting 200 children???? In a town of 94, I should be able to find the festival fairly easy. Not so. After two trips around town and nothing was found, I asked a gentleman where I was suppose to be. He pointed up the road, about a block away (clear across town), and then mentioned it was not until tomorrow. OK, this was definitely a moment in life where I truly felt stupid, and I dislike using that word. But there was no better word choice than stupid to describe my feelings. Well I am not going home. So I decided to travel a little further south and put Saturday to good use by fossil hunting the Burlington limestone for crinoids, then return tomorrow. I am glad I did, because it was a very successful hunt!!! Anyways, here are some pictures from Morrison on SUNDAY.

 

First up was some of our members and their displays.  

 

Next, a few participants discovering what is inside their specially picked rock. Once they discover their fossils, we go up to my display board, ID what they found, and learn a little bit about their fossil finds. We went through 3 five gallon pails!!!

 

 

[minnbuckeye]

 Another happy participant with his fossil shark's tooth!!

 

  

 

 So why does a person waste a day making rocks, drive hours to have kids shatter his creations , then waste another day waiting for the correct time. This final picture speaks loudly as to WHY!!!!!!!!!

 

[fossilnut]

Looks like it was worth all the trials and tribulations. Although your excuse to fossil hunt seems a bit lame. Congratulations!

[RandyB]

Glad it all worked out. Thanks for taking the time to give all those potential future FF members a fun experience and a little something special to take home. 

[fossilsonwheels]

Great job. A lot of work it sound like but that is really cool.

[BLT]

Wow! This is all simply fabulous, Mike! Well done, indeed!!  I’m glad you were able to put Saturday to good use and enjoy the day, too.  

[FossilNerd]

Well done! Anyone who devotes some of their time to make children smile is a great person in my book! The fossil outreach and education is icing on the cake. .

 

BTW... I am sooo going to copy your recipe for making fossil filled “rocks” for my son. I have purchased a few of those children’s dig kits in the past and he loved them. I would thoroughly enjoy making some of my own.  

 

[Pagurus]

5 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

This final picture speaks loudly as to WHY!!!!!!!!!

 

Yes, yes, yes!!!

[Darktooth]

Great job Mike! I am happy that it all worked out for you.

[Dinoguy89]

Amazing stuff

[smt126]

That was very nice of you Mike. The looks on his face is priceless.

 

I second not using plaster of paris. I used it to do the same for my kids scout group and it was a bit hard for them and damaging the mosasaur teeth i had bought for it.

[Monica]

Your dedication to the hobby of fossil-hunting and educating children about it is outstanding, Mike!!!  Thanks for sharing! 

[Pemphix]

Well, it is far more to be honoured: these are the paleontologists / fossil hunters of tomorrow !

Exact such a event was the point in my life that i was getting in the fossil topic - and i am sure a lot of others, too !

 

Thank you for keeping our passion alive by wakening up the interest of the next generation !  

 

 

[jcbshark]

Great work Mike 

[minnbuckeye]

11 hours ago, jcbshark said:

Great work Mike 

@jcbshark, You get partial credit. He is likely holding one of your shark's teeth!!!!! Team work!

[fishguy]

Thanks for your help Mike.  I wasn't able to make it but our members said it was a great time for all.   We have another event Oct 9th if you want to come down and help with that you are always welcome.   

[minnbuckeye]

@fishguy, I chose to help at Morrison because I will be in North Carolina Oct 9th.

 

Mike

[Paul1719]

Thanks for posting. I have worked with some youth groups, (my own 4H club and a middle school in Boston). I'm hoping to get involved again so this is a great activity. One of the things I like about fossil collecting is you get the excitement of finding the fossils in the field (definitely not so easy with a lot of kids) and then when you get stuff home there's the excitement of prepping the specimens. You never know what treasures you'll find when you crack a rock open. :^)