Dinosaur Egg Hatching

For my son's 4th birthday a few years ago we had a big Dinosaur Dig Party. One of his favorite parts of the party was the dino egg hatching center we had.

About two weeks before the party we made up a batch of fossil dough (see link below). We made the dough into egg shapes and put a small plastic dinosaur inside of it. Each day for about a week,we turned the eggs over so that they would dry evenly. Most of them dried in 5-6 days but the really big ones took 10 days.

Once dried they were as hard as rocks. We hid the eggs in a "nest" which was a turtle sandbox lid that was filled with straw. The kids at the party each got to find 2 eggs. Then they took the eggs to the "Egg Hatching Station" to see what was hiding inside. At the station we had protective eye wear, small hammers, rubber mallets, metal scrapers, and paintbrushes. As the kids opened them, they squealed in delight at their baby dinosaurs!

The project was a huge hit but it was very messy. (Definitely not an indoor project!) To make clean up easier we laid a large canvas drop cloth down first. After the party we just took the canvas in the woods to shake it out since everything was biodegradable!

I'm going to surprise David this doing this project next week. I know he will be excited!

This link has a recipe similar to what we used to make our dino eggs!
http://www.amazingmess.com/2011/06/fossil-dough.html