I haven’t written a post about a children’s craft or activity for what feels like ages, which is a shame actually as when I started this blog it was all about things to do with little ones (and you can see loads of these in the crafts and activities for kids tab on my blog). However, Freddie and I got creative today for his homework, and I suddenly felt the urge to snap what we were doing and got a bit more of the creative flair back that I enjoyed so much a few years ago.
Anyway, I digress, our creative activity/homework was something right up the street of a dinosaur-crazy 8 year old:
Salt Dough Fossils!
These turned out much better than I expected, and we actually had a really fun half hour or so making them before they went in the oven. If you’re a mum from my school you’ll no doubt have been getting stuck in to these too, although hopefully not leaving them right until the last day of the holidays like us!
These fossils are designed to get the kids thinking about geology, and Freddie really got into this, doing the majority of it himself.
A perfect activity for any dinosaur-mad child!
You will need:
- 2 Cups plain flour
- 1 Cup salt
- 1 Tablespoon of oil
- Approx 3/4 of hot water (but I added a little extra towards the end of making the dough)
- Black food colouring
- Plastic dinosaurs, shells, leaves etc
Method:
- Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and then add the oil.
- Add a 3 teaspoons of black food colouring to the hot water & slowly pour it into the mixture, stirring as you go. If the dough becomes too wet add more flour, if too dry a little more water.
- Knead until the dough is nice and smooth.
- Divide the dough into according to what size and shape dinosaur you want to press into it, and roll each piece so about 1cm thick.
- Press the dinosaurs into the dough.
- Either grease and baking tray with oil or cover it with baking parchment like we did.
- Bake the fossils on the tray in the oven at 120 degrees c for 1-2 hours. Turn the fossils every half hour until they feel hollow and are thoroughly dried out.
See some of my other crafts and activities for children
