Students learn two terms on this 3-page 3rd grade science sheet. A box defines body fossils as parts of the living thing and trace fossils as signs of what it did. Students sort ten pictures into two columns, from a dinosaur bone, a shark tooth and a trilobite to a footprint, a worm burrow and a tail drag mark. Page 2 asks which kind shows how an animal walked and why soft animals like jellyfish are rarely found as fossils. The answers page lists both columns.
“Tell body fossils from trace fossils.”
Page 1 sorts five fossils into each type.
“Explain what a fossil can show about how an animal lived.”
Question 1 on page 2 uses footprints to show how an animal walked.
“Give a reason why soft-bodied animals leave few fossils.”
Question 2 on page 2 asks about jellyfish.
A pink box with the two definitions, ten labeled pictures in two rows and a table with five lines under Body Fossils and five under Trace Fossils.
Two written questions with five lines each. One asks which kind of fossil tells how an animal walked, and the other asks why jellyfish rarely become fossils.
Both columns in bullet lists, then an answer for each question. Footprints show whether an animal used two legs or four, and how fast it moved.
Hold a real example
Pass around casts or photos of a shell and a footprint before the sort. Students match each definition to the object in their hands.
Make a track
For question 1, have students press footprints in clay. Count the steps and look at the spacing, the way the answer key does.
Jellyfish talk
Use question 2 to discuss what has to happen to an animal before it can become a fossil. It leads straight into burial and layers.
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