Project Overview

The Fossil Hunter poems and artwork were created by third-grade students at Big Pine Elementary as part of their Fossils Tell of Earth Long Ago learning expedition. The poetry and art projects were included in a culmination fossil journal and were displayed at the Celebration of Learning. During the expedition, students explored paleontologists and how they unearth fossils, the steps of fossilization, and what the fossil evidence tells us about the paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras of Earth’s history. Students went on a fossil hunt in the White Mountain Range in collaboration with our high school science teacher and freshman class. They also unearthed real-life fossils using fossil dig kits.

The poems were inspired by the book If You Are the Hunter of Fossils, written by Byrd Baylor and illustrated by Peter Parnall. The students were able to incorporate ideas from their fossil studies, fieldwork, and the book If You Were the Hunter of Fossils in order to project what a fossil hunter could see, hear, feel, and know through their experiences. The artwork was inspired by Peter Parnall’s illustrations, which show a fossil hunter in connection with both the modern-day landscape and hidden fossils from Earth long ago. For their own accompanying art project, students were asked to show themselves in connection with the landscape and hidden fossils using the medium of colored sand on paper.