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Rock On: Make Your Own Rocks and
Fossil
by Susanna Bartee
If you have a kid living at your house who loves to get dirty and smash
things, you will definitely want to try this activity. All you need to
create your own rock recipe are a few household ingredients, some small
treasures and a couple of hours. But first, brew yourself a big pot of
coffee. You’re going to need it.
While you are sipping your cup of “Joe”, send your kids to gather up all
those plastic trinkets they collect and can’t seem to part with. You’re
going to need those too.
Materials: 1 ½ cups flour 1 cup used coffee grounds ½ cup salt ¼ cup
sand 1 cup water
Treasure Rocks Mix the ingredients together with a spoon in a large bowl
until a soft dough forms. You may need to use more flour to get the
consistency just right. Pinch off marshmallow-sized balls and lay them
on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Carefully use your fingers to make a
hole in each ball and then hide a small treasure inside. (See a list of
ideas below.) If your trinkets are larger than will fit in the ball, you
can use more dough but must allow for a longer drying time. Cover the
hole and make sure the treasure is sealed in there really well. The
rocks will shrink a bit as they dry so allow for a little extra space
around the trinket.
At this point you can add glitter if you want to have a sparkly rock or
paint carefully with acrylic or tempera paint to make it colorful. Let
the rocks dry in a warm place for two to three days. If you don’t want
to wait that long, remove the wax paper and bake for about 20 minutes in
a 150-degree oven. (Special note: if you are going to bake your rocks,
use food coloring instead of paint.)
Once the treasure rocks are cool and hard, kids can use a hammer to
smash them open and reveal the prize. This gets a little messy, so it is
a good idea to do it outside or on a newspaper-covered floor. And, of
course, little fingers need special help using the hammer to make sure
the rock is the only thing that gets smashed.
Treasure ideas*: coins folded paper with a special note plastic figures
or toys costume jewelry fool’s gold erasers small rubber balls *You may
want to wrap these things in a bit of plastic wrap or else plan on
washing them well after they are freed from their dirty rock-homes.
Fossils Another fun use for the rock recipe is making your own fossils.
Mix the ingredients in the same way, but flatten the small balls into
circles before drying. While the dough is still moist, firmly press your
object into the dough and then remove carefully. Once the dough has
hardened (or you’ve cooked it like above), you will have a really cool
fossil of your very own making! If you want to hang your fossil from a
string, make a hole in the dough along the edge before it dries.
Fossil objects: stiff leaves (bay leaves work well) dead bugs with hard
shells small bones (like last night’s chicken) seashells plastic
dinosaur models twigs bumpy rocks
These are great activities for birthday parties too. Use the treasure
rocks for a pirate party and the fossils at a dinosaur bash. Or make
some on your own and surprise your kids with an archaeological search in
your back yard. If you use black paint, you may even want to fill a
stocking next Christmas and surprise the recipient with treasure-filled
“coal”.
Who knew coffee could be so much fun? Just use your imagination and rock
on!
About the author
Susanna Hickman Bartee is an Army wife living with her husband and four
children near Ansbach, Germany. She is the founder and editor of
www.militarymama.net
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