Salt Dough Fossils

Making salt dough dinosaur fossils was our first activity at Toddler Group this term. I had spotted a tube of small Good Dinosaur figures in Home Bargains a couple of months before and set them aside for this purpose. I hid the figures in a tub of rice and provided spoons and jugs for the little ones to use to dig for their dinosaurs before casting fossils of them. A lot of the kids enjoyed playing with the rice much more than making the fossils I think! I encouraged the older children make the dough for us (2 parts flour, 1 part salt, 1 part warm water and a good sprinkling of ground coffee), which they loved doing. The coffee grounds add a rich colour and speckled appearance making the finished pieces look more like rocks. It also made the dough smell really nice and helped a little with the dryness on your hands you can get from working with salt dough. They each made as many as they wanted and then I took them home to bake in cupcake cases marked with their names. I think they're fab...