Fossils

Last night I went to a chapter meeting of the Master Naturalists.  We had a speaker about fossils.  She explained why fossils are most often found in sedimentary rock and how most of the bone is replaced with the minerals in the water that ran through the sedimentary rock.  She was a good speaker because she was enthusiastic and funny.  I was in a mood and kept throwing comments out which she took in good stride. She gave us an idea to get kids excited about fossils.  At Thanksgiving she keeps all the turkey bones (and gathers the bones of other turkeys if she is going to do this for a classroom of kids).  She boils the bones and gets as much meat off them as possible.  After drying the bones she soaks them for 2-3 days in a bucket of hydrogen peroxide.  She dries the bones again and puts them in a flat container and pours plaster of paris over them.  The plaster coats the bones but their shape can still be seen.  After the plaster sits for about an hour she breaks the plaster with the bones apart into pieces that include at least one bone.  She then pours a layer of sand into many small containers that will be used by 2 or 3 kids.  She puts a plaster of paris covered bone on top of the sand and covers it up with more sand.  The kids go fossil hunting into their containers armed with old toothbrushes, old make up brushes, nails and straws.  The straws are used to blow the sand away.  The kids get really excited when they find a bone covered with plaster of paris.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  I wouldn't mind doing it myself.