Wild Wednesdays: Salt Dough Fossils

This week’s activity comes from the Rainy Day Mum Blog 

You Will Need:

• For Salt Dough:
  • 500g Plain Flour 
  • 500g Table Salt 
  • 250ml Warm Water
• Rolling Pin 
• Baking Tray 
• Paint(Optional)
• Mod Podge (Optional)

Helps Children with:

• Conversations about the past 
• Interest in Earth Sciences

To make your salt dough, mix 500g of plain flour with 500g of table salt.  

Slowly add 250 ml of  warm water to the bowl. Mixing as you go. 

Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes 

Split the dough into eight sections. 

Using a rolling pin, roll the sections into eight smooth discs, about 2 cm thick.  

To make the fossil design, press toy dinosaur figures into the dough. Or make foot prints with their feet. 

If you don’t have dinosaur figures, try otehr toys and experiment! 

Place the discs on a baking tray and dry the salt dough out on the lowest oven setting. 

Once the salt dough is dry, you have the option to paint the designs. 

Then seal with Mod Podge (or perhaps PVA glue?) 

Trying it out at home: Each week we run through the instructions at home and give honest reflections and feedback. 

This week Travel and Tenant Advisor, Laura Kerry made Saltdough Fossils with her son Aiden (with some help from big brother Evan) 

Sourcing Materials: Whilst the materials were easy to source, there was quite a lot of them – 500g of table salt is a lot, you might not have that much just in the cupboard! 

Mess Factor: Whilst flour always poses a bit of a risk it wasn’t bad at all. The most hands on time is the kneeding of the dough which isn’t super sticky. 

Evaluation: This is a great rainy day activity, we chatted loads about dinosaurs and fossils while we worked. Great results for not a huge amount of effort. 

Aiden took some round to his friends for his birthday too, so he was clearly delighted with the end result! 🙂 

Try some of our other Wild Wednesdays here:

Make a Cold Bird Feeder 

Make a Squirrel Feeder 

Make a Bird Seed Garland 

Make a Mini Pond