Making Your Own Fossil Hand Prints

We did this today for our preschool co-op. Really fun and the kids had a great time getting their hands into the gooey mess!! The letter of the day was H and I thought making hand prints would be a fun activity. Hopefully they'll harden in a couple of days and the kids will be able to discuss it at home... we also planted "grass" (actually chives because I couldn't find grass seeds) for the letter G. Fun fun fun!!!


Fossil Mix
1/2C salt
1 C flour
1/2C brewed coffee
1C used coffee grounds

and anything you want to fossilize (rocks, play dinosaurs, seashells, bones, etc)

Add ingredients to bowl and stir until mixed. Turn dough out onto a large sheet of waxed paper and knead it until smooth.

Break of pieces large enough for the imprint you want to make, roll it into a ball and use the heel of your hand to flatten it out.

Press the object you wish to make a fossil imprint of firmly into the dough. You can use more than one object if you like. Carefully remove the object to leave the imprint behind. Let your fake stone dry overnight and you have an imitation fossil!!

This made enough to do 3 small hand prints, you may need to double the recipe if you plan on using objects...

Since this recipe uses coffee and we don't drink it in my house I had fun trying to find a small amount to use and not spend an arm and a leg!! So I found a box coffee singles at Target for $1. It worked perfectly!! So for those that don't drink coffee you can find it there for cheap!!

Have fun!!!!