Preschoolers can sort the pottery pieces by their relative shapes and begin to see where pieces might fit together.

Preschoolers will probably also have a relative sense of what the pieces are made of (clay, metal, plastic).

After extracting objects from the dig site and fitting the pieces together, preschoolers can usually imagine what the reconstructed object may have looked like.

They can also try to guess what the object might have been used for, even if some pieces are still missing.

Preschoolers can pretend they are archaeologists, and may become very interested in acting just like a professional archeologist would.

Preschoolers are developing the ability to make 'maps' and can probably indicate on a grid paper the location of the artifacts that they have discovered.

Older preschoolers can count how many different objects they have found during their dig.

They can also describe in detail broad features of the pieces and order the pieces by size (bigger or smaller) and shapes (rectangular vs. triangular pieces, for example).

Preschoolers can recognize numbers on a tape measure or ruler, and may attempt to "measure" their pottery pieces.

This "measuring" usually takes the form of placing the pottery piece on a number and calling it a "2" or "5", rather than actually measuring the piece.

If an adult shows them how, preschoolers can also observe their pieces through a magnifying lens.