Archaeology + Paleontology Layer Cake

All photos on this page are by Megan Evans

Don't have a yard suitable to doing fun archaeology digs in?   Well, then just try layer cake!

I can't claim to have come up with this brilliant idea.   That honor goes to amazing homeschool mom Megan Evans who made the archaeology/paleontology cake below, and graciously allowed me to share her photos of it here.

She didn't have a yard so she baked "artifacts" into a layer cake to "excavate" later.   That is the tastiest archeology dig I've ever heard of.
 

On the top we have a scrumptious campsite.

 

Then underneath we see the layers.

I like how she made the layers from

different color cake mix.   

 

The top layer had some modern items.

In the middle layer, a grave with grave goods.

(Love the use of the ring as a crown!)

And for the bottom layer, moving from

archaeology to paleontology, 

we have dinosaurs.

This is a project that would be so worth the sugar rush.  If you didn't want to eat through all that cake at once I could see gradually "excavating" it over several days.   For older kids you could have them string the top area off like a real archeology dig and diagram where they found things in the cake.  Such fun!   Thanks Megan for sharing this great idea!

TRIVIA  

• Archaeology and archeology are both correct spellings of the word in the US.   To learn more, read this. ) 

• Paleontology and Archeology, while they overlap some, are different.  Learn more here.

 

See More History Posts

Caves: Free Printable Book

I made a cave book for my kiddo while we were studying the Stone Age.   There's a lot of other uses for this little book, though.  The center is designed to be cut out revealing a picture on a second page.  Subsequent pages could be used using these two pages again.

You could use this book to make a story or non-fiction book about...

• Caves (of course)
• Cave Art
• Bats
• Hibernation
• The Stone Age
• David and Saul's Encounter in the Cave (1 Samual 24)
• Platos Cave Allegory
• Etc.

Here's what my son did with it for the stone age.   You can see he drew a girl, a fire, cave art, and a lizard.   If I were to do this again I would have the second page be black construction paper and then have my son use light colored crayons to draw on top of it.

You could also shrink the size of this (easy to do in printer settings) and use this as part of a lapbook.

Click Links Below to Download Pages

Cave Cover

Cave Blank Pages Template

More Fun Cave Ideas

Caves Unit Study

My Pinterest Page With More Fun Cave Ideas

My Favorite Cave Non-Fiction Book

 

One Small Square: Cave 

We did whole unit on caves lasting several weeks using this book as our spine last year after visiting a nearby cavern (really, it would be more ideal for reading BEFORE going as it has several activities to do inside a cave, but it worked great as a follow up too).

The book is beautifully written and illustrated, and chalk full of great information, activities, and experiments to do.  It encourages kids to look at one small square of a cave thoroughly...thus the name.  This is one of a series of various other environments (backyard, forest, pond, jungle, african savana, etc.).  

Link to book above is an affiliate link through which I

can earn commission. 

TERMS OF USE

You are free to use this cave printable however you would like in your homeschool or for classroom or other educational or play use.  If you want to use it commercially, or make alterations and share it for free, see additional terms at the bottom of this page.

ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SHARING/ALTERING

If you want to share this somewhere, THANKS...you're welcome to share a link to this post and use a picture from this page (but please don't share the files directly, thank you).

You are welcome to make some alterations to this and distribute/share your altered version directly on your own blog or site, if you do the following:

• YOU MUST INCLUDE A LINK TO MY BLOG ON THE PAGE YOU SHARE IT.
• The resource must be offered FREE.
• You must keep my copyright info on the front page (adding your own info too  is fine...or moving it to another spot on the page, but it must still be there.  I don't care about the second or later pages). 
• Please let me know about it by sharing a link in the comments.  Most likely I'll add a link to it on  this page.

If you want to make alterations to this, but offer it commercially (for sale), we can work that out.  It involves giving me credit and letting me have a free copy to use myself or share with friends, but you will need to contact me at ecarian@yahoo.com to sort out the details.