Little Paleontologist

My daughter has been in this dinosaur phase for so long. We saw a dinosaur exhibit at the Omaha Children's Museum and one of the activities was digging for dinosaur bones. They had a big sandbox with giant bones in it. You could unearth the bones and brush them off. I thought I could translate this to a home activity. Here's what you need:
*big plastic tub with a lid
* 20lb bag of rice($5 at walmart)
*little shovels, brushes, funnels or tools(not sharp)
*small dinosaurs, bones, shells, rocks and really anything you could use as a fossil

This is so simple and provides hours of entertainment. Just dump the rice in your box and bury your fossils. Give your child the tools and tell them how to dig up the fossils and brush them off. You can talk about how professionals find bones and make molds of them because they're fragile. Or you can talk about any other type of information relating to paleontology, dinosaurs or fossils. The kids will enjoy just digging in the rice with their hands and tools after they've found all the fossils. And when they're done just put everything in the plastic tub and shut the lid!