Kōwhai tamariki have been learning about how fossils are created and different types of fossils.
We learnt that body fossils is when the whole body of a plant or animal is set into the rock, whilst a trace fossil is when the animal or plant leaves a print that fossilises over time. We decided to create our own trace fossils using a coffee grain dough that was baked in the oven and gives the texture of sandstone.
Mrs Gibson also taught us about the different layers of rock and fossils that tell scientists about what Earth's landscape was like a long time ago. The older layers are on the bottom and the newer ones on top! We understand that the deeper a fossil is found, then the older it is!
The Paleozoic era was 452 million year ago and was a time when life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned onto land - fossils found at this time include hard shelled animals, fish and some plants such as ferns.
The mesozoic era was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, about 252-66 million year ago and plants moved from the oceans to the land.
The cenozoic era - during this era, plants and animals look most like those on Earth today.
We have completed a fossil layer art work to show our learning, which will soon be displayed in class.