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3rd grade · Science · Unit 9 of 10

Fossil Clues

What fossils tell us about life long ago.

What your child practices

Practices using fossils as evidence of plants, animals and environments of long ago, such as the sea scorpions and trilobites in New York's rocks that show the state was once under a shallow sea.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 3-LS4-1 · fossils as evidence of organisms and environments of long ago

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Fossils are clues about life long ago.
  2. Fish and coral fossils together mean there was once a warm sea.
  3. In rock layers, older fossils are usually lower down.

Example: A fossil has fins and gills. Where did it live? Fins and gills are for life in water. Answer: in water

Fossil Clues in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 9 of 10 in 3rd grade Science, after Magnet Inventions 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Amber can hold a fossil of…

    • a cloud
    • an insect
    • a whale
    • a mountain

  2. Question 2

    Mastodon bones were dug up in Cohoes, New York. Mastodons lived during the…

    • time of the first cars
    • Ice Age
    • year 2000
    • Middle Ages

  3. Question 3

    Fossil seashells on dry land tell us…

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

  4. Question 4

    A fossil is…

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

  5. Question 5

    Fossil shells are found in rocks near the Finger Lakes. The land there was once…

    • on top of a volcano
    • covered by the sea
    • on the moon
    • always a dry desert

  6. Question 6

    Palm leaf fossils in a cold place show it was once…

    • in space
    • warm
    • frozen
    • underwater ice

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