Hi Everyone
I love this project – I do this every so often for my kids and they just always think it is so much fun! It involves making your own dinosaur “fossils” with small toys and Plaster of Paris
- Mix up the Plaster of Paris according to instructions
- Place your mold onto a solid surface
- Pour a little of the plaster mix into the mold
- Add your mini dinosaur into the mix
- Top up with plaster and leave to harden as per instructions
- Give your little one a few tools and let them get excavating!
To make this an economical project I bought a HUGE 20kg bag of Plaster of Paris from my local builders merchant for about $20 – which was a great buy seeing as it was $13 for 500g at the craft store…
You can of course use anything as a mold (yogurt pots, ice cream containers) and below you can see a series of pictures showing how you can make a really big one in your sandpit!
Here is how I made a BIG fossil in the sandpit which took the kids days to excavate!
- Dig a hole in the sandpit
- Pour in your plaster of paris and throw in your plastic dinos
- Cover with sand
- Drag a spade or stick through the mix to make a cool shape
- Leave to dry (3 hours I think..)
- Let the kids loose with a hammer and some paleontologist protective eye goggles -cheap safety glasses!
These little molds are so neat with their dino shapes – I think they are for muffins. I made these crayons below using a tutorial I showed here.
Let me know if you give this a try! Goes without saying this is something you need to make and get the kids to play with OUTSIDE!!
29 Comments
Such a great idea!!! This would be great to use in a classroom as well.
Thanks for sharing Lowri! These are such a great craft to do with my son 🙂 Cheers!
I have a Dino Lover at my house and he would LOVE this! Thanks for sharing! Do you remember where you got your dino molds??
Hi there – Thanks for the visit
I bought them at K-Mart – but that was here in New Zealand…they are muffin molds!
Love your blog!! Its so cute!!! I am your newest follower!!! i would love to feature you on my blog. so let me know!! 🙂 So if you would like to go and check out my blog and follow me too! That would make my day!!! 🙂 I am so excited to start blogging and share my ideas on food, crafts, and mineral make-up. I will also be doing giveaways on stuff, like mineral make-up. So look out for it!
Thanks!
-Brooke
For-the-luv-of.blogspot.com
This is a fabulous idea! We are having dino week this week so I better head to the hardware store – this is a perfect ending for our week. Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful! I am featuring this submission to our weekly Playdate on our new Playdate for this week… come and snag your 'featured' button and add some more links if you like!
Cheers,
Lori
http://www.beneaththerowantree.com
My son would love this! Love the little dino crayons too! So cute! Thanks for sharing this at For the Kids at Sun Scholars! I'm off to share your post with my facebook friends. 🙂
Yay for dinos! I wish I knew some kids so I'd have an excuse to do this! 😛
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this! we are going to try it next week. thanks for posting. incredible idea.
kathryn
http://www.thedragonsfairytail.blogspot.com
twitter: kathblogger
Totally love these fossils, Lowri! Super fun idea, not only for kids 😉 Janna
Hey Lowri, I was wondering if you can tell me what kinds of tools you gave your children to do the excavating. Will plastic play tools work, or do they need to use "daddy's" tools?
Hi Beth – I bought the kids small craft hammers from the dollar store.
I have also given them small but solid (non-sharp) clay carving tools and cheap paintbrushes on a huge tray and let them do it on the kitchen table when it has been raining.
We have a farmhouse kitchen though – do not suggest you do this if you have a fancy kitchen! Using the small tools makes the small fossils last ages.
For the big one you might like to use a big hammer – depending on how old they are!
Hope this helps 🙂
Lowri, we SO do not have a fancy kitchen. I would let them do that in my kitchen…although we are planning to do the first batch later this week to play with on Friday for my 6 year old's birthday.
My boys would love this. It would be perfect for a dinosaur birthday party! I would love it if you wanted to share this idea, and any others, at my "It's a Celebration" link party. I think everyone will love it, I know I'm not the only one always on the look out for good boy party ideas!
Christina
http://www.inspirationforcelebration.com
This is neat. Thanks for sharing it with me.
This is such a good idea. My boys would love it, thank you for sharing
That is awesome! I would love it if you would link up to my Tuesday Confessional link party going on now: http://www.craftyconfessions.com/2011/07/tuesday-confessional-link-up-2.html. I hope to see you soon!
~Macy from Confessions of a SAHM
Love this! I shared this on our blog today. Can't wait to try this out. You're such a great mom!
I shared this on my blog! Thanks for inspiring me!
Cute idea! Just posted on CraftGossip 🙂
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5126
We did something kind of like this, but with your super cool molds you took it to the next level – AWESOME!!! What a fun learning activity!! I am your newest follower. I'd love for you to folllow me back, if you want to =-) I also wanted to invite you to link up to our kid-friendly TGIF Linky Party – http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties – I know my readers would LOVE this!! Merry Christmas,
Beth =-)
Hello! This is such a great idea. I linked your blog to our Natural History Museum page on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Missouri-Institute-of-Natural-Science/223382727696666
We have lots of kids visit us and this would be a great project to do at home!
So cute!
I’d love it if you shared this with the Fun Family Crafts audience.
FFC is similar to Craftgawker but it only features kid friendly tutorials.
Looking forward to seeing what fun crafts you submit!
http://funfamilycrafts.com
So cute! What kind of "tools" did you have them use to excavate the fossils?
Can you use something else other than plaster of Paris?
Can I use the plastic hello molds? Or would it crack easily?
I've tried your brilliant idea today.
As I didn't have anything practical to fill the plaster in, I used aluminium foil.
After a while the plaster got really warm. Is that normal?
Or did that happen because I used the aluminium foil?
That's normal. The chemical reaction of plaster and water is exothermic (produces heat).
You can google it for more information 🙂