After reading about the Missouri dinosaur dig site, the boys have been so excited about digging for dinosaurs. I took 8 little plastic dinosaurs and put them in a sand dough. After letting it dry for 3-4 days, I created this dig site. I layered on play clay, sand, pea gravel and mud. 
We also had a grid so we could record where on our dig site we found the dinosaurs.
We had a variety of tools. The boys thought they'd be able to just use their fingers, but quickly realized it's not so easy to dig out "fossils." 
After getting through all the layers, the boys began chiseling out the dinosaurs. (At this point, Clarey had lost interest and I was inside dealing with her - so no pictures!) All in all they excavated 8. They recorded their find on the grid and washed up the fossils. They couldn't believe how long it took to get to the fossil layer and then how hard it was to get them out. It was a great sensory experience, team work challenge and a test of their patience and persistance. Our next museum trip will be to the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History to see the Missouri dinosaur - the Hysibema, a hadrosaur - and all of the other fossils there.
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