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Ever wondered how to make your own dinosaur fossil rocks? Here’s an easy recipe that you can make over and over again, for endless amounts of fun!
My four year old son, Easton, is a dinosaur fanatic! (I know many kids are.) I mean, what’s not to love about them? Dinosaurs are SO COOL!!
Easton is set on becoming a paleontologist so I try to support his interest as much as possible with dinosaur toys, books and activities. These dinosaur fossil rocks are so easy to make and can be done over and over again. Easton has a blast busting these rocks open with a hammer and discovering which dinosaurs are in them!
These DIY dinosaur fossil rocks are:
- so much cheaper than buying fossil kits
- easy to make
- endless amounts of fun for dinosaur loving kids
Dinosaur books for kids:
These are some great dinosaur books to supplement this activity. The first book is Easton’s FAVORITE dinosaur book!
The third title in National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book series, this book is for kids 4- to 8-years-old who LOVE dinos! Bursting with fun facts and age appropriate information, each spread features a different dinosaur, along with simple text in big type that is perfect for little kids. Young dino fans will love the interactivity included in every chapter, and parents will appreciate tips to help carry readers’ experience beyond the page.
Ever wondered how to find a dinosaur? Paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson, host of Dinosaur Train on PBS Kids, tells kids how! How do paleontologists find dinosaur bones? How do they know what dinosaurs ate or looked like? And what is paleontology, anyway? Dr. Scott tackles all these questions and more while inspiring kids to go out and make the next big dino discovery!
What kind of dinosaurs are best to use in these fossils?
You can use any kind of small plastic dinosaur toys you’d like! In fact, you can also make fossils of other things like plants, shells or other animals.
I chose to use these dinosaur skeletons to make the fossils a little more realistic.
What tools are good to use with these dinosaur fossils?
You can create your own paleontology kit to use with these fossil rocks. Here are some suggestions:
How do you make your own dinosaur fossil rocks?
- 1/2 cup of brewed coffee (room temperature or cold)
- 1 cup of used coffee grounds
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of salt
Step 1: Add the coffee grounds, flour, salt and about half of the brewed coffee to a bowl and mix together. Add the rest of the brewed coffee in slowly, as needed, to form a slightly sticky dough.
Step 2: Form the dough around your dinosaur and shape it to look like a rock. To make it look realistic, give it an uneven, or rough texture. You can also leave a part of the dinosaur sticking out if you’d like.
Step 3: Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven at 200º F for 1-2 hours, until the dough is dried out. The cooking time will depend on how big your rocks are as well as how much moisture is in the dough. If you don’t want to bake them, you can also set them outside to dry in the sun.
Step 4: Once they are dry, let your kids break them open with a hammer. I hid them in the garden and let my son “discover” them first. 🙂
Note: Hard plastic melts at different temperatures, but in general the plastic dinosaurs should not melt at 200º F. If you don’t want to risk the plastic melting, dry the fossil rocks out in the sun.
Try these other dinosaur activities!
Dinosaur Fossil Rocks
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add the coffee grounds, flour, salt and about half of the brewed coffee to a bowl and mix together. Add the rest of the brewed coffee in slowly, as needed, to form a slightly sticky dough.
- Form the dough around your dinosaur and shape it to look like a rock. To make it look realistic, give it an uneven, or rough texture. You can also leave a part of the dinosaur sticking out if you’d like.
- Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven at 200º F for 1-2 hours, until the dough is dried out. The cooking time will depend on how big your rocks are as well as how much moisture is in the dough. If you don’t want to bake them, you can also set them outside to dry in the sun.
- Once they are dry, let your kids break them open with a hammer. I hid them in the garden and let my son “discover” them first. ????
Video
Notes
- You can use any kind of small, hard plastic dinosaur toys you’d like in these fossil rocks! I chose to use these dinosaur skeletons to make the fossils a little more realistic.
- Hard plastic melts at different temperatures, but in general the plastic dinosaurs should not melt at 200º F. If you don’t want to risk the plastic melting, dry the fossil rocks out in the sun.
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