A Lesson on Fossils 



Mary E. Hill 

 Kennebunk, Me. 



This lesson is particularly valuable in regions where there are 

 fossil bearing rocks, but it is by no means limited to them. Stones 

 have a great attraction for children, whether from some atavic 

 instinct inherited from the days when stones were the only weapons 

 and the earliest tools or because they are so common and make 

 pretty playthings. Whatever the reason, more stones have been 

 brought to me by my pupils with requests for information than 

 any other natural objects except insects. 



The lesson was given by the writer in Central New York, in a 

 city whose outskirts contained numerous limestone quarries and 

 deposits of shale. The school museum contained specimens from 

 other localities, sandstone and shales bearing imprints of leaves; 

 limestone containing shells of brachiopods and a few trilobites. 



"Stones" brought in by the children were part of the material 

 for the Nature-Study lesson. The lesson as taught consisted of 

 three parts. First the examining of the specimens of fossils and 

 an explanation by the teacher of the way in which fossils were made ; 

 second the making of the fossil impressions in clay by the pupils 

 as an illustration; and afterward a lesson on the part that corals 

 have had in making additions to the original peninsula of Florida. 

 This last may seem to some not very apropos but it seemed to 

 me a valuable lesson and*I chose to teach it in this correlation. 

 The geography teacher was appreciative of this lesson. 



The material for the lesson then will consist of: (i) Pieces of 

 rock with fossils in them, limestones, shales, sandstone to be 

 obtained from quarries or talus slopes. (2) Small empty sea- 

 shells, pieces of coral, pillbugs sometimes called sowbugs, leaves 

 of trees, willow, apple, birch, of ferns. The dried leaves of autumn 

 make the best impressions. 



(3) Outline maps of the United States and of Florida. 



(4) Clay, modeling clay or clay from a brick-yard, or from a 

 local deposit. (5) A smooth surface of glass or oil-cloth or any- 

 thing. (6) Steel knives or smooth sticks of hard wood, for making 

 the portions of clay smooth . 



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