Are you a 3rd grade teacher looking for fossil record activities and fossil evidence lesson ideas? This post will help you plan lesson ideas, STEM activities, science experiments, and more for teaching environment, survival, and fossil evidence in third grade science.
In third grade our students learn about different organisms and how they adapt to their environments. The next question they explore is how living things and their environments have changed. The following are third grade fossil evidence activities for students to explore:
- What fossil evidence is
- How fossils form
- What fossils tell us
- Three types of fossils
- The fossil record
- The geologic time scale
I ask students to think about plants and animals that lived millions of years ago and ask, “What was their environment like?”. “How do scientists learn about extinct organisms and their environments?”. The answer is by studying fossil evidence. The following fossil record activities and fossil evidence lesson plans are available my third grade science unit, Environment, Survival, and Fossil Evidence.
3rd Grade Fossil Record Activities
Fossil Evidence Teaching PowerPoint
Types of Fossils
There are three types of fossils: molds, casts, and trace fossils. Molds and casts are the most common. A mold is a hollow area in sediment that is the shape of an organism or part of an organism. A cast is a solid copy of the organism’s shape formed by mineral replacement.
Fossil Evidence Teaching Slides on PowerPoint
Add this simple project to your fossil record activities for students to make models of mold fossils using Play-Doh from the dollar store. We used shells, plastic bugs from Amazon, sticks, and leaves pressed into Play-Doh to make our fossils.
Students then traded “fossils” with a classmate to analyze and try to determine what they could learn about the organism and its environment from the fossil.
Fossils only form in certain conditions. Most organisms decay after they die and do not form fossils. To be fossilized, an organism must contain hard parts such as bones, teeth, cartilage, or shells. Organisms with soft bodies, like worms, are rarely fossilized.
Fossil Evidence Activities & Teaching PowerPoint
Another important condition must be present for an organism to be fossilized. Its remains need to be covered by sediment soon after its death. Sediment can include mud, the sandy seafloor, lava, and even sticky tar or sap. Over time, minerals in the sediment seep into the remains. The remains become completely replaced by minerals and become fossilized.
Making Geologic Time Scale Models
Fossil Evidence Teaching PowerPoint
During our study of fossils, our students learn the relationship between the fossil record and the geologic time scale. The following lab is an ideal one to add to your fossil evidence lesson plans. Using different colors of Play-Doh and beads students make simple models of the geologic time scale. The colored Play-Doh represents the rock layers in the geologic time scale and beads represent the fossil record the layers hold. Students draw and label diagrams of their models and explain how the fossil record was formed.
Geologic Time Scale Activity Lab sheet source
The fossil record is considered to be incomplete because most organisms never became fossils. Fossilization is a very rare phenomenon. Most organisms decomposed quickly after their death and their remains dispersed. This National Geographic video explores the mystery behind the gaps in the fossil record.
Fossil Evidence Online Science Games
This online fossil evidence activities and Layers of Time game is provided by the American Museum of Natural History. They have a paleontology section with several different fossil games for upper elementary students.
This science based-website has a collection of online fossil evidence activities and science games from several difference sources.
Fossil Evidence Lesson Plans
This complete environments, survival, and fossil evidence lesson plans & science unit includes:
- 4 weeks of scripted lesson plans
- high-engagement teaching PowerPoint
- student work books
- investigations, science experiments & STEM labs
- assessments and quizzes for each lesson
- vocabulary posters
- focus wall and bulletin board
- essential questions posters
- learning target cards
- related lesson videos
This unit is available in a bundle with a digital version and audio lessons.
Purchase the unit on TPT or here in my website shop
Elevate your science lessons and engage your students with these fossil record activities and fossil evidence lesson plans! Your students will love the exciting investigations and STEM labs, too!
If you enjoyed this post and found it helpful, please share it with your teacher friends!
Visit these posts for more third grade science teaching ideas:
Environment & Survival Activities for 3rd Grade
Inherited Traits and Variation of Traits Activities for 3rd Grade
Leave a Comment