We’ve used playdough to make dinosaur footprint fossils in the past, but today Veronika had fun making full body prints of something much smaller: bugs!

A set of plastic bug toys was perfect for this activity. I showed Veronika how to flatten playdough into little pancakes, and then to press down one bug at a time.

Lift up…

…and reveal the imprint! Because the full body of the bug will fit on the playdough discs, these really do look like fossils of ancient creepy crawlies. It also turned into a fun matching game, helping her match each imprint to a 3-D object. I would hold up one “fossil” and ask her which bug it matched. Was this one the ant?

No, the cockroach! Next she found a match for the centipede.

Of course bugs aren’t the only thing that leave fun tracks in play dough. We finished the game by rolling a bumpy ball over some of the play dough discs. Perhaps this “fossil” belonged to some very mysterious ancient creature.

And then she made her toy figures walk through the playdough and loved seeing their footprints!

What fossil will your mini archaeologist dig up? Please share in the comments!