Let's admit it, excavations are a hit! Everybody loves excavations. Well at least that's what we believe... but everyone knows we are a little crazy about excavations!

 

In fact, we love excavations so much we are going to teach you how to make the world's easiest excavation at home so you can excavate anytime you want.

 

You, your child, student, friend, or whoever needs some good old fashioned excavation entertainment will be impressed when you provide them with an excavation they can dig right into!

 

And guess what, our method only requires one ingredient!

 

But there is a catch...

 

The one ingredient is kitty litter. Clumping kitty litter to be exact.

 

So if you can get over the mental hurdle that you will be digging through kitty litter then you are ready to learn how to make the world's easiest excavation!

 

Excavating Adventures Pro Tip: These DIY Kitty litter excavations may be the easiest excavations you will ever make, but for those Excavating Adventurers that prefer to buy their dig kits, be sure to check out our huge assortment of fun and unique excavation kits! Explore our ever growing collection of hundreds of excavations kits and activities and you are sure to find something to dig in and enjoy. 

 

For the sake of this tutorial, let's assume you have a birthday party, class full of students, a homeschool group or some other gathering of eager young minds needing not only some entertainment but some education.

 

Your mind immediately jumps to a dinosaur dig. Usually preparation for this activity takes some significant planning because you have to gather an assortment of materials that can be a little hard to track down. But not anymore because now you can make an excavation at a moment's notice!

 

Here we go! Head to the cupboard, closet, or nearby market and grab your ingredient: clumping cat litter... clean and unused of course. 

 

If you love excavating, you will really love our Gemstone Journey Excavating Adventure. It is loaded with rubies, emeralds, topaz and more! You can check it out here:

 

 

 

Now all you need are a few materials and you are ready to start creating your excavations:

 

1. Some kind of container in which to create the excavation. I like to have a container for each participant. This can be disposable containers like paper bowls for large groups to make cleanup easier or plastic bowls or containers that can be cleaned and reused. Just remember, the larger the container, the larger the mess!

 

2. Excavation tools. Popsicle sticks work great as the kitty litter excavations are reasonably brittle. Little watercolor paint brushes are awesome to include but not required but participants do like to brush away the debris. 

 

3. Eye protection is a must to keep any flying debris from getting into eyes. 

 

4. Add of course, the item to be discovered. For this example we are creating a dinosaur dig. Little plastic dinosaurs are readily available and inexpensive. You can even find small dinosaur skeletons that make the excavation even more realistic and really gets the imagination flowing. 

 

Excavating Adventures Pro Tip: If you have a young Excavating Adventurer that is excited about dinosaurs, then be sure to check out our fossil filled dig kits. Some of our kits even contain real dinosaur bones!

 

 

 

Now put a layer of kitty litter in your container. Place the dinosaur on the layer of kitty litter. Then cover the dinosaur with more kitty litter. Pour some water of the litter until it clumps (you can press the clump to make it more compact if needed) and solidifies. Pour off any excess water and allow the excavation to dry (you can leave the excavation in the container or pop it out so it dries faster). That's it! You have just created the world's easiest excavation! 

 

Excavating Adventures Pro Tip: If you love easy and inexpensive DIY excavation and dig kit activities, then be sure to explore our Excavating Adventures Blog. Our blog is loaded with fun and creative ideas to excite and entertain the Excavating Adventurers in your life. 

 

Another great thing about this easy excavation activity is that you can use any item that you feel will go with the theme of your party or align with the lesson being discussed. For instance, if you are having a space themed birthday party you could put little plastic aliens in the excavations or if you are discussing rocks and minerals you could put some nice rock specimens in the excavations. The opportunities to leverage these easy little excavations to educate and entertain are pretty much limitless. 

 

Pro tip: Don't tell your participants that they are digging in kitty litter. For some reason they tend to get weird about it... ha!

 

 

If you love excavating as much as we do, be sure to check out our Excavating Adventures monthly subscription by clicking the link below and get an awesome new excavation delivered each month loaded with rocks, minerals, gemstones, fossils, and more!