Grade Level: Kindergarten
Teacher of Lesson: Anne Regnier
Approximate Time: 30- 45 minutes

Objectives:

1. Children will identify with paleontologists as they make general observations and formulate hypothesis as they try to figure out what life form might have created a fossil.
2. Children will practice classification and organization skills by identifying patterns and shapes.
3. Children should become familiar with common fossils and the life form that made them.

Materials:

1. Various real fossils
2. Butcher paper
3. Markers, crayons, pencils
4. Paper
5. Index cards
6. Drawn or photocopied pictures of animals or plants and the fossils they created.
7. Books that contain photographs of fossils.

Procedure:

Statement of purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to get the students thinking about fossils and the life that creates them. This lesson purposely does not contain a lot of direct instruction from me because I want the children to have time to formulate their own interests and questions about fossils. I want for them to construct their own knowledge by touching and seeing the fossils first hand and by talking and asking questions with their peers.

1. Place various fossils in a pile on the middle of a table or carpet. Allow time for the children to touch, feel, look at, and talk about fossils with no restrictions from myself.
2. Instruct children to pick a fossil they really like or find interesting.
3. Tell children to draw a picture of what kind of creature that they think made that fossil when it was alive. Move from student to student, asking them to explain what their creature was and help them record some of their thoughts on the paper.
4. Come back as a group and ask each child to tell the group to explain why they feel that creature probably was what created the fossil. Nudge them if necessary to explain how that creature got there, what it looked like, how long ago it was, etc.
5. Discuss with children how their observations that they made were similar to what paleontologists do when they find a fossil they have never seen before.
6. Ask children to put fossils back in to middle of the carpet of table.
7. Tell children to separate fossils into groups of similar fossils types (for instance, all the fossils that they think were created by plants). Allow lots of talk and questions. Help them with fossils that they may have misplaced by asking them questions regarding why they chose to put something somewhere, or by pointing out a feature on the fossil they may not have considered.
8. Put up a piece of butcher paper on the wall. Have it prepared ahead of time as shown in Appendix 1.
9. Tape index cards with pictures of living thing that made fossils up on the wall - separate from the butcher paper. [ Note: Animals that are most commonly known for making fossils to introduce to children include coral, dinosaurs, shells (clams and snails), plants, crinoids, insects, sharks, and fish.]
10. Pick up a fossil from one of the groups made, point to the picture of that fossil on the chart. Pick one child to choose from the index cards which living thing they think made that fossil. Instruct child to tape card on to chart. Tell children what the name of the fossil is (if they didn't already know), and write it onto the chart by the respective picture.
11. Continue to do this for all the categories of fossils that children have grouped. For fossils that are on the chart, but not available for children to see first hand (example: dinosaur, insect, and some shell fossils) have photographs from books available to show.
12. Have discussions where necessary with children about animals they might not be familiar with.

Evaluation

1. Were children able to express their beliefs of what living things made their fossil through pictures or words?
2. Were children able to notice patterns and shapes in fossils in order to classify them appropriately? If they didn't put the fossil in the right category, were they able to give a good explanation as to why they placed it in another group?
3. Were children able to see the connection between the fossils and the life that created them?
4. Were the children picking up on the names of the fossils both throughout the exercise and in the lessons that follow (long term assessment)?

Reflection

Were the children interested in the lesson? Did I plan too much for one sitting? Should I have started the lesson with exploration first (as I did) or with introduction of facts first? Were they well behaved? Was this lesson fruitful/beneficial? What would I do differently next time?