A fossil is evidence of past life. Burial can protect remains or traces from destruction. Sediment can later become rock. Fossils can preserve original material, replaced material, or an impression. Most dead things do not become fossils. There is no single required number of years for every fossil. Safety: No real remains, soil, tools, or geological collecting are needed. Stop: Stop when the paper history is explained. Do not dig for fossils, break rocks, or try to harden a model with heat.

Materials: Paper; Pencil; Four torn paper cards 1. Write four cards in this mixed order: C: More sediment covers the buried shell; pressure and natural cement can turn sediment into rock. A: A shelled animal dies on a muddy bottom. D: Uplift and erosion can later expose rock containing shell evidence. B: New mud quickly buries the shell and protects some evidence from scavengers and decay. 2. Arrange the cards into a possible history. Draw a shell outline on the first frame, then add sediment lines above it in the next frames. Label your drawing Paper model, not actual rock formation. 3. Next to the buried shell, write two possible outcomes: shell material remains or minerals preserve its form. Add a third outcome: evidence is destroyed. Circle the outcomes that could leave fossils. 4. Make a four-item fossil list: shell, bone, leaf impression, footprint. Mark which are body remains and which record an activity. Explain how a footprint can be evidence even without a preserved foot. Done: An ordered four-frame shell history, two preservation outcomes, and four labelled fossil examples are complete. Proof: Keep the sequence and drawings. Note help with reading, ordering, or distinguishing a body fossil from a trace. Stop: Stop when the paper history is explained. Do not dig for fossils, break rocks, or try to harden a model with heat.