Schedule for Summer 2004

Last Fall and Early Winter Programs   

Last Summer's Programs

Frequently Asked Questions

Rocks and Fossils

At our rock and fossil programs, children can take home small collections of rocks and tiny fossils, sort and match up modern and fossil bones, play with our huge collection of plastic dinosaurs, and learn lots more about rocks and fossils.  Activities vary depending on the ages of the children. Activities  Learn more about it

Activities

Here are some activities we've done at Wonder Works during the past year. Most activities take place in the well-lit area adjacent to Great Outdoors.  Children could:

• Sift sand for buried rocks (best for 3-year-olds and other children who don’t put rocks in their mouths)   Learn more
    

• Collect in the Rock Hounds’ “garden” (appropriate for any children who don’t put rocks in their mouths).   Learn more    We supply plastic bags to hold children's discoveries.  Older children can make their rocks into a real collection by gluing them to name cards (best for ages 6 and up)   Learn more
    

• Play with plastic dinosaurs in the blocks area – make mountains, caves, etc., with the blocks (variations for 2 years and up)   Learn more 
   

• Make dino-sorts with plastic “dinosaurs.”  (Sort them into meat-eaters and plant-eaters, match parents and babies, and so forth.)  (ages 3 and up, with parents help)   Learn more 
   

• Hunt for loose fossils in a fossil-rich gravel—and take them home (best for ages 4 and up)   Learn more 
   

• Sort and match up real bones, modern and fossil.  Can you figure out where each bone belongs?  (best for ages 4 and up, and 3-year-olds who don’t put bones in their mouths)
    

• See and touch real fossils from Illinois and nearby states (all ages)   Learn more 

Learn More About It
  

  Sift Sand for Buried Rocks

There are treasures hidden in our container of white sand.  If you carefully sift the sands, you might find nuggets of copper and bits of fool's gold.  You can add your best finds to your collection.

   Collect in the Rock Hounds’ “Garden” 

In the Rock Hounds' "Garden", we've got rocks and not much else.  That makes it the perfect place to find rocks for your collection. Our garden contains "decorative landscape stone" bought at local stores.  In early July, it included  brown chert, quartzite pebbles, trap rock, salt-and-pepper granite, and something we call "geode rock."

The Wonder Works Rock Hounds' Garden is a smaller version of the garden described on this Web page:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/garden.htm >
If you look near the middle of the page, you can find out which local stores carry these types of rock.

   Glue to Name Cards 

Once you've searched in the garden, washed some rocks, and sifted and panned some sand, you can step inside the air-conditioned museum building to cool off.   As you cool off, you can complete your rock collection by gluing your discoveries to name cards.

If you need help identifying your rocks, you can go to this Web page:
   < http://www.saltthesandbox.org/rocks/names.htm >

If you need some extra name cards, you can try downloading this Word2000 file and printing it on cardstock:
   Name Cards for Rock Hounds' rocks
If that doesn't work, e-mail us at Webmaster@SaltTheSandbox.org and we'll find another way to get you this file.
  

   Plastic Dinosaurs

We live in the Golden Age of Plastic Dinosaurs!  Today you can buy more kinds, and better quality, plastic dinosaurs than ever before.   During Fossil Hunters, young visitors to Wonder Works get to play with a huge assortment of prehistoric beasts in almost any way they please.

Go here to link to some Web sites about plastic dinosaurs:
   < http://www.saltthesandbox.org/dinosaurs/resources.htm#ToyDinos >

   Dino-Sorts

Can you tell meat-eaters from plant-eaters?  Real dinosaurs from other sorts of prehistoric beasts?  Can you match dinosaur parents with their young? During Fossil Hunters, you can test your dino-sorting skills.

ZoomDinosaurs.com is our favorite Web site about dinosaur classification and dinosaur names:
   < http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/index.html >

   Make a Fossil Collection

Have you ever found a fossil?  You'll find hundreds of real ones during Fossil Hunters, and you can take the best five home to add to your collection.   Your finds will include teeth from sharks and rays that lived in Florida millions of years ago.

We buy some of our fossil mix from The Fossil Web's online store.  Go here to learn more about "PaleoPebble" fossils:
   < http://fossilweb.com/fwstore.htm >

Go here to see pictures of the sorts of fossils that can be found in the Peace River area:
   < http://fossilweb.com/id_menu.htm >

Go here to find links to Web sites about collecting fossils:
   < http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/StoringCollections.htm#CollectingFossils >

   Fossils from Illinois

You can find fossils right here in Illinois and in nearby states.  During Fossil Hunters, you can see a fossil collection built by 8-year-old Ethan, who lives near Wonder Works and helped us plan this special program.

Here's a Web site about common fossils found in Illinois:
   < http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/fossils/mainpage.htm >

This page includes many more links to Web sites about Illinois fossils:
   < http://ebeltz.net/niftylinks/fossils.html >

The most common fossils in Chicago suburbs are found in chunks of gray rock used to make roads, driveways, parking lots, and railroad beds.  The scientific name for this rock is "dolostone."  Go here to learn more about dolostone and the fossils found within it:
   < http://www.saltthesandbox.org/rocks/dolostone.htm >