Fun with Fossils

Schools are now closed, but here's a Y6 lesson on fossils I managed to fit in just before the last day.

You'll need some actual fossils, ideally, though you could get away with good, clear photographs. (Also, not every child needs a fossil, in spite of what the lesson plan says. They could work with one between two or even three, if necessary.)

You could also print out one or both of the two coloured sheets below: the first shows the geological ages and the second gives the main facts about the four fossils I used - crinoids, ammonites, belemnites and gastropods. 

Here is the lesson plan:

This is a link I gave to the children so they could research the fossils.  After they had done their research notes, we shared what they had found out and looked at each other's fossils. Lots of them already knew lots about prehistory so we had quite a discussion on the topic.

Then they all did the warm-up exercise and shared their lists of 'things that are usually grey'. Not all their ideas were concrete; some were abstract, e.g. "grey as despair".

Finally we wrote the poem all together, a line at a time, in silence. We only shared at the end. As usual, I told them that if they got stuck on any line, they should just miss it out and wait for the next one.

Here are just three Y6 poems that I have permission to share. One is a first draft and the other two have been revised and copied up.