Crayon Rubbings, Fossils and Robot Dinosaurs

For Week 2 and 3 I was away for the BGWP and wasn't able to participate with the YMCA Summer Camp Activities.  I was bummed, the BGWP was a lot of fun and I learned and practiced some new strategies, but I am an artist and will always prefer to be making or painting something.  That being said, Week 4 for YMCA Activities brings on a study of fossils.  First, we went on a Nature Walk and gathered leaves.  Then we brought them back to our activity table and using white printer paper and naked crayons (without the paper, geez!) we made Nature Rubbings.  

If you are not familiar with these, here are the steps to jog your memory:  1. take a leaf and place it face down on the table.  2.  Place a white piece of paper over your leaf.  3.  Take the paperless/naked crayon and lay it down flat, like it's taking a nap  4.  Rub the crayon back and forth over the paper and the lines and details of the leaf will begin to appear.

We talked about how this is kinda what a fossil looks like, but it's in rock or stone.

We talked about how fossils are made (thanks to Bradley, my son, and his plethora of boys' books and dinosaur knowledge).  Then we made our own fossils.  Now, the first group made theirs out of a recipe I found on the internet.  It was on the Education.com website, so I figured it was pretty legit.  However, it was a mess.  The recipe was also inconsistent, the heat from summertime didn't help and the "dough" was either sticky (like sticking to your hands and table sticky) or it was too dry and cracked and fell apart.  So, we did the best we could with what we had and I switched it up the next day.  I went to Wal-mart and got the Air Dry clay.  SOOOOOOO much better!  I know it's more expensive, but it's simple AND there's very little mess.  I also picked up some poster paint and little watercolor paint palettes to 
color our fossils.  (I know that isn't legit to all you Science Teachers, but hey, live a little!)  
The Flour and Salt Recipe Lesson Plan and info can be found here.  
This recipe makes these little "sugar cookie" patties and after a day of 80 degree heat, they still aren't dry and they are breaking apart very easily.  Just FYI.

Here are some pics: