Product Tips

Can You Dig It?

Volume 3 / Issue 2 / Winter 2003

Need a worthwhile, hands-on activity for your children? Archaeological excavation kits might be just the thing.

For younger children, second- to fourth-graders, my pick is GeoSafari’s Buried Treasure kits. Each kit contains a block of porous clay, four buried replicas of ancient artifacts, a plastic scraping tool for excavating, and a 30-page booklet to guide and enrich the process. The objects are fairly easy to find and unearth, though the process requires precision and patience. The kits are reusable, too; simply crumble and wet the clay dust and use the molds provided to rebury the treasure or make sculptures of ancient ruins.

The booklet is an excellent supplement, providing clear, easy-to-follow instructions and detailed information about, for example, ancient Egypt, its people, their religious beliefs, and the history of their empire. To stimulate higher-level critical thinking, the booklet contains data cards that require careful observation in drawing and describing the identity and significance of each artifact as it is unearthed. Children may then read the fact sheets about the artifact and verify their own observations.

Earth Lore’s I Dig Treasures “Mysteries of Egypt Excavation Adventure” kit is also fun, although somewhat tedious. It contains a large sand (“ancient glacial rock”) pyramid, six buried artifacts, a steel mallet and chisel, protective eyewear, paints, and a paintbrush. The sand is messy, and using the hammer and chisel requires well-developed hand-eye coordination (not to mention adult supervision), but second-, third-, and fourth-graders skillful enough to manipulate the tools will enjoy this kit. Unearthing the artifacts calls for care and patience, just as archaeology does. Children may paint the artifacts to set up a museum, but the kit is not reusable. Earth Lore’s smaller kits, containing one artifact or dinosaur replica, might be fun at birthday parties.

For middle schoolers, GeoSafari’s Xcavations! kits are a good choice. Encased in hard plaster, “fossilized” dinosaur bones await the junior paleontologist’s discovery. Using steel chisels, a mallet, a pick, and a brush, children carefully chip away the plaster, cleaning and exposing the skeleton. (The skeleton itself is not removed from the plaster; it remains fixed on the plastic display tray.) This painstaking process gives them a good sense of the precision and caution needed in scientific excavation and of the excitement that a paleontologist experiences as isolated skeletal parts transform into a whole. The tools are sharp, and some children may need supervision. The manufacturer stresses hammering and scraping away from the hands and body and recommends the use of protective eyewear, though none is included. Six different kits are available.

An equally good choice is Kristal Education’s Expedition kits, which include ancient artifacts or dinosaur bones encased in solid blocks of plaster. After the plaster has been softened with water, the objects are removed from it with a sharpened wooden stick, cleaned, and reassembled into a relic or a skeleton; children may then glue the pieces together, sand the seams, and paint the artifact. An information sheet explains the history and significance of the relic and points out that most artifacts must be carefully fit together in this way, like a puzzle.
—Sarah Boone

Sarah Boone has an M.A. in teaching and certification in gifted education. She teaches at MeredithCollege.