You can make your very own dinosaur bone from a big cardboard tube, newspaper and flour. This is a messy craft – wear old clothes and work outside if possible.
- Large cardboard tube (or a gift wrap tube or a paper towel tube)
- Large plastic bowl (like a big cottage cheese container) and stirrer (to mix the flour glue)
- Flour and water
- Newspaper
- Tape
- White, yellow, or tan tempera paint
- Brush
Instructions
Crumble up some newspaper into balls and tape to the ends of a big cardboard tube.
Make a simple, thin glue from flour and water (boiling gives it a nice consistency). Mix 1 cup of flour into 1 cup of water until the mixture is thin and runny. Stir into 4 cups of boiling water. Simmer for about 3 minutes, then cool. Have an adult do the cooking!
You can make this glue without cooking it, but it isn’t as smooth that way. You should still have adult supervision.
Have children tear a lot of strips of newspaper and/or brown bag paper. Strips should be about 1 inch wide; the length doesn’t really matter.
Dip a newspaper strip into the cooled glue, then wrap it around the dinosaur bone. Cover the entire bone, then let it dry (it may take a day or more to dry).
When dry, paint the bone. You now have a great dinosaur fossil!