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Babiekins Magazine

A Trendsetting Magazine & Online Community For The Trendsetting Child + Parent

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City

By Gina Munsey, Senior Editor Leave a Comment

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

If you’ve been anywhere — anywhere! — in the last several years, you know nature exploration is a thing. Nature walks and nature journaling have exploded in popularity, and at every corner you can find watercolor studies of leaves, plants, and insects. But this fascination is nothing new. People once crowed by the hundreds into drafty lecture halls, to listen in awe while explorers of old captivated them with tales of just-discovered wonders. Curiosity cabinets, those aptly named display cases of time gone by, were filled with insect specimens, unusual rocks, pressed botany, and yes, even preserved taxidermy. We as humans have always been enraptured by the unknown, the adventure that’s just beyond the horizon.

Today, especially in #schoolkins circles, there’s such an emphasis put on letting your children out into the wild open, and letting them splash through creeks, dig for worms, and forge their own trail through the underbrush. But if you live in an urban setting or an apartment building, like we do, this kind of exploration likely isn’t a natural extension of your day. There are occasional bursts of nature in the city, yes, but the open prairies come alive by reading Sarah, Plain and Tall rather than stepping outside our front door, and the only tree-houses we’re likely to encounter are those in Swiss Family Robinson.

And I know we’re definitely not the only family making our home in a multi-family building, rather than a mountainside cabin. That’s why I am happy to share this little fossil clay project with you today. It’s a nature project, but everything you need can be gleaned from your windowsill plants or collected from the sidewalks that wind their way through your not-so-wild landscape. We just miiight have foraged a little bit of faux-nature — stay with me here! — from the toy box, too.

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Fossil Clay

To create your own fossils, you’ll first need to mix up some sedimentary rock. You can find fossil clay recipes in a number of places around the internet as well as in several books, but here’s how we did it. Make either a single or double batch, depending on how many fossils you wish to create. (Be sure to measure carefully, or your clay won’t be usable.)

1 c. baking soda // or 2. c. baking soda
1/2 c. corn starch // or 1 c. corn starch
1/2 c. cold water // or 1 c. cold water

Whisk together dry ingredients and water, and pour in to a saucepan. With a sturdy spoon, stir mixture over medium heat for just under 4 minutes, until it thickens into a consistency that’s a little less stiff than playdough. Pour the lump of clay onto a glass plate, and let cool for a couple of minutes, then knead until smooth.

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Roll the dough into little spheres, then flatten into discs. Place the discs onto a non-stick surface, like a cutting board covered in wax paper or a Teflon-coated baking sheet. Your sedimentary rock is now ready to take the shape of the items you press into it!  Before we made our fossil clay, we snipped rosemary clippings from our urban container “garden”, gathered leaves from houseplants, collected twigs and gravel from the sidewalks and the area around the downspouts, and even dove into the toy storage for some little creatures.

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

After you’ve imprinted all sorts of creative patterns — there are so many different options! — allow your sedimentary rock to dry. In a dry climate, leaving the fossils out uncovered overnight might be sufficient;  you live in a humid climate, like we do, it make take a little longer for the discs to fully dry out. (You might also need to gently place the discs on a wire rack once the tops have dried, so the underneath can dry as well.)

Schoolkins // Making Nature Fossils in the City | An Urban Nature Project by Gina Munsey as published on Babiekins Magazine blog

Your littles now have a whole treasure trove of fossils, each one as unique and individual as their imaginations — and each one is as wild and wonderful as the place you call home, whether that’s in a secluded village or many stories into the city sky.

If you live in an urban area, what have you done lately to encourage exploration?

Filed Under: Fun Tagged With: art projects, children and nature, clay recipe, crafts, fossil DIY, fossil dough, fossils, gluten-free clay recipe, homemade clay, homeschool, homeschooling, nature walk, salt dough recipe, schoolkins, urban exploration Posted By: Gina Munsey, Senior Editor

About Gina Munsey, Senior Editor

Gina is a Mexico-born, Eastern Europe-raised writer who finds herself in historic Franklin, Tennessee. A blogger for 16+ years, trendspotter, and influencer, Gina serves as Senior Editor of Babiekins Magazine and also lends her voice to numerous publications. As a published interior stylist and author, she definitely owns more rugs than jeans and shoes combined. You can find Gina on Instagram @oaxacaborn.

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Copyright © 2023 · Babiekins Magazine | A Trendsetting Kids' Fashion Magazine and Online Community for Parents and Children Alike · Since the Southern California birth of Babiekins in 2010, the magazine has grown from into an internationally-recognized print publication with a global circulation and now a thriving online community. We are more than a kids’ fashion magazine. We search everywhere for inspiration, and go beyond trends to bring you fashion, style, decor, design, books, DIY, parties, and playthings. Our readers look to us to keep up with the best and most up-to-date concepts in the children’s market worldwide. We have an eye for quirk. We’re high-fashion, but we value whimsy over tradition. Playful childhood is more important to us than making kids into copycat adults. We believe life is beautiful, life is valuable, and life changes when you see it through the eyes of a child. We seek to transcend skin color, language and zip codes and bring out the real, wild, magical creativity inherent in every child. And behind Babiekins is an optimistic team of mothers-turned-editors, working from home, often with our own little babiekins climbing on, under and around the desks. We want to encourage you, and challenge you to see something different — something special — in yourself and in this world we all share. Welcome to Babiekins!

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