Skeleton Bones - Simple Human Anatomy for Kids

This is an easy skeleton activity for kids! It’s a great introduction to human anatomy. Gross Anatomy was my favorite subject. In fact, I loved it so much that I spent an entire summer in a gross anatomy lab and then the following summer teaching that lab! The base of the human body is the bones, so that’s a great place for kids to start! In no time, they will be ready to learn how to make a heart model!

on an orange background, two bones and a skull sit. They are labeled with white labels with black text that say "femur", "cranium", and "tibia"

Hands On Learning Bones Lesson

Learning about how bones fit together is the start of learning how everything else works. I loved finding familiar structures and the detective work required to identify anomalies {something unexpected or unusual}. The simple human skeleton print out even includes labels, so let’s get started! Science activities for kids, like this one, open up a whole world of learning!

Related: Skeleton coloring pages

A scary-smart human anatomy lesson kids love!

A Lesson About the Skeleton For Kids!

We first did this lesson at Halloween because it was so easy to find bones! At that time of year, skeletons are everywhere. The cool thing is that most Halloween skeletons are simplified versions of the real thing. I suspect fitting 214 bones into a holiday decoration might be a little difficult! So, you may not be able to label every single bone, but you can label the basics and then talk about how the “fake” bones differ from the real ones.

We have a fun bone identification printable that you can download and use. This printable human skeleton comes with labels for the major bones.

Skeleton Bones Printable for Kids

Skeleton Bones Free Printable Activity Sheet and Tags for Kids. A smiling skeleton has blanks to be filled in for each of the words in the word bank, above its head. "clavicle" "cranium" "femur" "humerus" "pelvis" "ribs" "tibia" "ulna" "Vertebrae" — This easy skeleton activity is just a fill in the blank!

This simple skeleton was based on a favorite Halloween costume {more on that in a minute} and can be used as an activity sheet to learn 9 basic bone names that are commonly on decorative skeletons: clavicle, cranium, femur, humerus, pelvis, ribs, tibia, ulna, and vertebrae. Don’t worry, page 2 is a key just in case you can’t remember which are which! Click the green button to download and print the skeleton printout for kids:

Once you’ve got these basics down, it is time for some fun! You can take your knowledge and test it with this fun skeleton craft that uses pasta noodles! After that, if your kids are ready for a real challenge, they can check out this skeleton game! It helps them to connect the bones they’ve learned to their own bodies!

The third and fourth pages of the skeleton bones printable set are tags that you can cut out and use to label your DIY kids skeleton costume!