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3rd grade · Science · Unit 11 of 12

Fossils & Long Ago

What fossils tell us about living things and places long ago.

What your child practices

Your child uses fossils as evidence of organisms that lived long ago and of the environments they lived in, including Alabama's fossil whale.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 3.8 · using fossils as evidence of past organisms and the environments they lived in

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Fossils are evidence of living things and places from long ago.
  2. Compare fossils to animals today: a woolly mammoth was like an elephant.
  3. Plant fossils show the old climate: palm or fern fossils mean it was warm.

Example: Palm leaf fossils are found in a cold place. What was it like long ago? Palms grow in warm places. Answer: warm

Fossils & Long Ago in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 11 of 12 in 3rd grade Science, after Weather Hazards & Solutions and before Weather & Climate.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Fossil seashells on dry land tell us…

    • shells can walk
    • birds made them
    • it rained shells
    • the land was once covered by sea

  2. Question 2

    A fish fossil is found on a mountain. The area was once…

    • a glacier
    • a city
    • a desert
    • under water

  3. Question 3

    Scientists who study fossils are called…

    • astronomers
    • chefs
    • paleontologists
    • meteorologists

  4. Question 4

    Fossil leaves of ferns tell us the place was once…

    • under deep ocean
    • a sandy desert
    • warm and wet enough for plants
    • always frozen

  5. Question 5

    A fossil is…

    • a new rock
    • a type of cloud
    • the remains or trace of a living thing from long ago
    • a modern toy

  6. Question 6

    Fossils of a tropical plant are found in a snowy place. Which is the best explanation?

    • Snow makes plants
    • The plant walked there
    • It was dropped yesterday
    • The climate there has changed

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