Staycation Ideas

Posts Tagged ‘fossil’

There is a small hiking trail and creek about a half-mile from our house that our kids love going to. In fact, the family photograph on the “about” page was taken at this creek.  We typically like going there just to play around in the water and look at water striders (the insects that can move on the surface of water).

Last weekend, while exploring our little creek, we came upon some marine fossils in some soft limestone along one side of the creek bed.  The kids thought it was so cool finding fossilized shells and coral.   My kids were so excited that when they had their cousins over later that day to play, they insisted that my wife and I take them back down to the creek to show them our new discovery.  We ended up turning our little walk into a true fossil adventure.  We started by grabbing an old soft-sided tool bag and stuffing it with everything a good paleontologist needs.  Our little toolbag had:

• Household Hammer and chisel
• Old, used paintbrushes for dusting off our fossils
• Old toothbrush (for the finer work)
• Flashlight(s)
• Notebook and pen (for writing and drawing our finds)
• Magnifying glasses
• 32mm film canister (for collecting smaller fossils)

We didn’t use half the stuff in the bag, but the kids had fun in the preperation.  We looked through my workshop and desk drawers together while talking about things a good “fossil hunter” would need on an exploration. 

Once we got down to the creek, I’ll tell you what, the kids could have spent literally all day down there.  They loved wading through the creek, getting messy and finding a way to use all those tools that we had brought in our toolbag. 

The adventure continued once we got home as we headed to the library across the street.  The kids wanted to learn more about the kinds of fossils we found at our creek.  We learned that many, many, many years ago (when Ohio was south of the equator…and a sea) Ohio looked more like the Caribbean than…well, than Ohio. That is the reason for the abundance of marine fossils that can be found in Southwestern Ohio.

Want to learn more about the fossils that can be found in your area?  The best place to start is of course your local library, but I also found some good online fossil guides for kids:

http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/

http://www.paleozoic.org/paleolinks.htm

http://geology.com/