Our Future Paleontologist + Dinosaur Excavation Activity

We visited the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits during our visit to LA last month, an activity that turned out to be a formative experience for our daughter:

Exploring the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits
Exploring the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits
Exploring the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits
Exploring the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits

Since our visit, the grown-ups in our house have taken turns pretending to be animals stuck in the tar while our little saber tooth tiger gently nibbles on us. (Clearly, this is her idea, not ours!)

We’ve also been busy polishing our excavation skills:

Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity

In the museum gift shop we purchased this fantastic dinosaur excavation kit. (FYI: the La Brea Tar Pits formed 10,000 years ago, long after dinosaurs became extinct; however, the gift shop sold a wide variety of science activity kits, including ones with dinosaurs.)

Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity
Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity

Using a hammer and chisel (contained in the kit), we uncovered a detailed bone replica to clean and then assemble. We bought the Brachiosaurus kit, but they also sell skeletons of Triceratops, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, T-Rex, and Pteranodon.

Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity
Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity

(Note: the magnifying glass and brush were our own; they’re not included in the kit, but we thought they were essential props for this particular activity.)

Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity
Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity

Oh, we had such fun pretending to be paleontologists!

Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity
Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity
Dinosaur Excavation Kit Activity

Our daughter now refers to her assembled Brachiosaurus as a dragon skeleton since we’ve been reading Dealing with Dragons before bed each night. In our daughter’s mind, this dinosaur resembles the (friendly!) dragon Kazul. Because, as she frequently reminds me, in our imagination anything is possible.

4 thoughts on “Our Future Paleontologist + Dinosaur Excavation Activity”

  1. Very very cool. Now I want a paleontologist kit… Hrm.

    What do grownups taste like to a little saber-toothed tiger? Inquiring minds, etc.

  2. this is the coolest kit ever! It must have been so fun for all of you guys! I love how interested she is in science at an early age!

  3. That looks like such fun!!!! Pop pop and I couldn’t be more pleased – ahh, a girl after our own hearts…

  4. I would love to take Miss Leyba and her parents to the California Academy of Science to see the dinosaur exhibit. I still remember the first time my father took me to the American Museum of Natural History for my 6th Birthday!! Of course, we go back to see the dinosaur exhibit every time we visit the museum.

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