How to Make Amber Fossil Models

This is a great project to do if you are studying the way living things are fossilized. Amber was made from tree sap that hardened. Sometimes insects got caught in the sap as it flowed down the tree, and the insect was then fossilized in the amber. You can simulate this process by putting plastic spiders (prevalent this time of the year) in amber colored glycerin soap. So that the soap would be in the irregular shape of real amber, I had my boys make shallow bowls out of aluminum foil first, and then we coated the inside of the foil with Vaseline, so the soap would not stick to the foil. The boys then placed their plastic spiders in the bowl.
I colored the glycerin soap with yellow and red soap coloring to make it amber-colored and since it was hot from melting, I poured it in their bowls.


I was amazed at how realistic they looked!

They hardened fairly quickly, and I helped them pop them out of their foil bowls.
We wiped off the Vaseline with a paper towel and they had models of spiders fossilized in Amber to play with!

If they get finished playing with them, they can always use them as soap to play with in the tub, and have a plastic spider to play with once the soap gets used up!