Kids' Activities: The Magic Bag Is A Great Way to Introduce Kids To Fossils

My long-time enjoyment of earth science, especially when it included fossil activities, had me doing earth science activities for kids from the time my own children were little ones. So when my middle school asked me to pick something to teach for six weeks that I just enjoyed, this was the first thing that came to mind. It was set up to be more like a club than a class, so while there were definitely learning goals, the most important goal was to have fun and enjoy ourselves. I knew I should include fossil activities in my lesson plans. There had to be a lot of hands-on kids' activities with an emphasis on fun.

When I got my class list, I saw immediately that I would need to do some revisions in my plans: I had a small class, but it included several students with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. These were not going to be internally motivated kids. I knew that my most important class would be the first one. I needed an earth science activity that would get the students