Description
Fossils Unit: Students will be completely engaged with the rich science information and fossil activities! Includes fossil worksheets and fossil interactive notebook flaps. This fossil integrated unit allows students to participate in critical thinking, read nonfiction passages, and engage in hands-on activities about fossils.
This resource includes directions for making a fossil replica using inexpensive materials such as a plastic bowl, modeling clay, seashell, and plaster of Paris (very inexpensive and can be purchased in any craft or home improvement store)
This resource addresses the disciplinary core ideas of Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity and Earth’s Place in the Universe. See more about teaching Fossils as Evidence of Earth’s History.
Standards Addressed:
NGSS 3-LS4-1. Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.
NGSS 4-ESS1-1. Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
Also aligned with
Utah SEEdStandard 4.1.3 Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the stability and change in organisms and environments from long ago. Emphasize using the structures of fossils to make inferences about ancient organisms. Examples of fossils and environments could include comparing a trilobite with a horseshoe crab in an ocean environment or using a fossil footprint to determine the size of a dinosaur. (LS4.A)
Standard 4.1.4 Engage in argument from evidence based on patterns in rock layers and fossils found in those layers to support an explanation that environments have changed over time. Emphasize the relationship between fossils and past environments. Examples could include tropical plant fossils found in Arctic areas and rock layers with marine shell fossils found above rock layers with land plant fossils. (ESS1.C)
This resource is also aligned with CCSS for reading informational text and includes five pages of nonfiction passages on fossils and fossil evidence. Students will learn how fossils are formed and about the different types of fossils.
This resource includes the nonfiction passages, response pages with text-dependent questions, lesson plans, hands-on activity to make a fossil, interactive notebook flaps, answer keys, and a review game. A review game can be used as a science center or for fast finishers. The review game is self-checking.
Great reading passage with comprehension questions on fossils!