Dinosaur & Fossil Dig
Real digging, real fossils, in your own hall.
- Key stages
- EYFS - KS2
- Session length
- 45 - 60 minutes
- Group size
- One class at a time
- Formats
- Up to 6 sessions a day
About this workshop
Our fossil dig explodes into your school with prehistoric thrills. Inside large sandboxes, children hunt down and identify fossils from the most legendary dinosaurs that ever lived - Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops and other ancient beasts waiting to be uncovered.
This is a palaeontology workshop, not a dinosaur-themed craft session. Pupils excavate carefully, record what they find, and work out what a fossil can tell us about an animal nobody has ever seen alive.
A favourite for British Science Week and for schools building a whole topic around rocks, fossils and prehistoric life.
How the session runs
What happens in the 45 minutes
- 01
What is a dinosaur?
Dinosaurs were a diverse group of animals that lived for millions of years, varying greatly in size, shape, diet and movement. Some were predators and others were herbivores; some walked on two legs, some on four, and some could use both. Birds are living dinosaurs, which shows how diverse the group was beyond the familiar T. rex and Triceratops.
- 02
When did dinosaurs live?
Dinosaurs lived approximately 230-65 million years ago and existed for around 165 million years, compared with about 200,000 years of human history. Pupils use string to compare the length of dinosaur and human history, and see that dinosaurs were only one part of Earth's much longer story, with abundant life existing before them.
- 03
The world of the dinosaurs
Earth looked very different when dinosaurs lived. Most of the continents were once joined as the supercontinent Pangaea, and the Atlantic Ocean and mountain ranges such as the Alps had not yet formed as they do today. Earth's plates move extremely slowly, at roughly the rate fingernails grow, and over millions of years Pangaea broke apart to form today's continents.
- 04
Dinosaur eggs and babies
Dinosaurs hatched from eggs, which varied in size, and even giant dinosaurs began life as relatively small babies. Fossils provide evidence of dinosaur eggs, nests and young. Scientists still have many unanswered questions, including the colours of most dinosaurs, which fossils rarely preserve.
- 05
What are fossils?
No one has seen a living non-avian dinosaur, so scientists study fossils to learn about them. Rapid burial by sediment can protect remains, which may eventually become fossilised as minerals replace or fill them, and erosion can later expose them at the surface. Fossilisation requires specific conditions, so the fossil record is incomplete.
- 06
Dinosaur teeth and footprints
Teeth can fossilise and reveal information about diet and lifestyle, and some dinosaurs could replace lost teeth in the way modern crocodiles do. Footprints provide evidence of living dinosaurs, including how they moved and whether they travelled in groups - multiple tracks heading in the same direction give clues about herd behaviour.
- 07
Tyrannosaurus rex
T. rex was one of the best-known predatory dinosaurs. It could reach around 43 feet long, weigh up to 7.5 tonnes and stand about 2.5 metres high at the hips, with a large head and around 50-60 teeth, some over 9 inches long. Pupils compare a T. rex footprint with their own feet and see how fossils help palaeontologists estimate size and movement.
- 08
Dinosaur brains and body size
Dinosaur brain sizes varied, and a large body did not necessarily mean a large brain. Pupils compare body and brain size using a large ball and an egg. Scientists can estimate brain size from the space inside fossil skulls, but brain size is only one clue and does not determine intelligence.
- 09
Argentinosaurus
Argentinosaurus was one of the largest dinosaurs known from convincing fossil evidence. This giant herbivore may have reached around 120 feet long and weighed over 100 tonnes, with vertebrae over four feet thick. Pupils compare a human vertebra with an Argentinosaurus vertebra. Exact size estimates vary because complete skeletons are extremely rare.
- 10
Other fossils
Fossils can include bones, teeth, footprints, skin impressions, plants, eggs and feathers. Coprolites are fossilised faeces and can reveal what animals ate, while fossilised eggs and nests provide clues about reproduction and behaviour, including possible parental care. Each fossil adds evidence that helps scientists reconstruct life millions of years ago.
What pupils will learn
The science they take away
Every session is built backwards from the curriculum objectives your teachers are already working to.
- 01How fossils are formed and why they are comparatively rare
- 02How palaeontologists excavate and record a site
- 03To identify major dinosaur species from their remains
- 04What teeth and claws reveal about diet and behaviour
- 05How rocks and fossils give evidence of living things from millions of years ago
- 06The vocabulary of palaeontology used in context
Curriculum links
What this covers in the National Curriculum
Science - Palaeontology / Evolution and Earth history
- Understand that palaeontologists study prehistoric life using fossils and other evidence.
- Understand that dinosaurs were a diverse group of animals that lived during the Mesozoic Era, approximately 230-65 million years ago.
- Understand that dinosaurs lived on Earth for around 165 million years and that the continents and environments of this time were very different from today, including the presence of Pangaea.
- Understand that continents have moved over millions of years due to plate tectonics.
- Recognise the diversity of dinosaurs, including differences in size, shape, movement, behaviour and diet.
- Understand that dinosaurs hatched from eggs and that young dinosaurs were generally much smaller than adults.
- Understand that some aspects of dinosaurs, such as their exact colours, remain uncertain and that scientific knowledge changes as new evidence is discovered.
- Understand how fossils form and recognise the different types of fossil evidence, including bones, teeth, footprints, skin, plants, eggs, feathers and coprolites.
- Use fossil evidence, including footprints, to investigate dinosaur size, movement, behaviour and social patterns.
- Identify key characteristics of Tyrannosaurus rex and Argentinosaurus, including their exceptional size and physical features.
- Understand that dinosaur size and brain size varied and that body size did not necessarily indicate brain size.
- Develop observation, questioning, prediction and deduction skills by examining fossil evidence.
- Use fossil evidence to make informed conclusions about prehistoric animals and their environments.
Key vocabulary
The words pupils will use
These are the scientific terms our facilitator uses during the session, so you can introduce them beforehand or pick them up again in follow-up lessons.
- Palaeontology
- palaeontologist
- dinosaur
- prehistoric
- fossil
- fossilisation
- fossilised
- Mesozoic Era
- Triassic
- Jurassic
- Cretaceous
- extinction
- Pangaea
- supercontinent
- plate tectonics
- continent
- evolution
- predator
- carnivore
- herbivore
- plant-eater
- T. rex
- Tyrannosaurus rex
- Triceratops
- Argentinosaurus
- sauropod
- dinosaur
- skeleton
- bone
- vertebra
- skull
- brain
- tooth
- footprint
- trackway
- egg
- nest
- hatchling
- juvenile
- skin
- scales
- feathers
- plant fossil
- coprolite
- sediment
- sedimentary rock
- minerals
- erosion
- weathering
- evidence
- excavation
- excavation site
- specimen
- prehistoric
- extinct
- herd
- behaviour
- diet
In your school
Brushes, not hands. Slow, not fast. Exactly how a real dig works.
Logistics
What we bring, what you need
We bring
- Large excavation sandboxes and all the sand
- Replica fossils, casts and reference material
- Brushes, trowels and recording sheets for every pupil
- A DBS-checked facilitator to lead every session
You provide
- A hall or large space that can take the sandboxes
- A parking space close by to unload
- A member of school staff present in each session
Questions schools ask
Before you book
- How much mess does the sand make?
- The boxes are contained and we sweep up after every session. Halls are handed back clean.
- Do the children keep anything?
- The fossils are reference pieces and stay with us, but we leave classroom follow-up activities behind.
- Does it work with Reception?
- Yes. The dig is adapted for EYFS with more handling and less recording.
- Can it run outdoors?
- It can, but indoors is more reliable in British weather and the sand behaves better.
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