By Sharon Fabian

A skeleton is good for scaring people on Halloween, but it does have other uses too. Your skeleton is what keeps you standing tall. Without your skeleton, you would just be a puddle of skin and stuff on the floor. Not a pretty sight! Your skeleton also protects your most important insides, like your heart, lungs, and brain.

Here are some of the main parts of your skeleton, starting at the top.

Skull--a built-in helmet for your brain

spinal column--backbone, made up of vertebrae

ribs--surround your heart and lungs

sternum--connects some of your ribs in front

pelvis--protects digestive and reproductive organs

humerus, ulna, and radius--arm bones

femur, fibula, and tibia--leg bones

patella--knee cap

Your skull is made of thirty bones, including the tiny hammer, anvil, and stirrup bones in your ear. The skull protects the brain and also provides the shape for your face. In an adult, the skull bones are fused together, but a baby's skull bones are still separate.

Your spine, or backbone, consists of thirty-three rings of bone called vertebrae. These discs are separated by cushiony layers of cartilage which protect the vertebrae and allow your backbone to twist and turn.

Most people have twelve pairs of ribs, but a few people have one or two extra pair! The ribs are attached in the back, to the spine. The top seven pairs of ribs are also attached in the front, to the bone called the sternum, which is in the center of your chest. The next two or three pairs are held together in front by cartilage. The bottom few pairs do not meet in the front; they are only attached in the back.

Your leg bones attach to the skeleton at the pelvis. The long bone in the top part of your leg is called the femur, or thighbone. It is your longest bone. The lower part of the leg has two bones side by side, the tibia and the fibula.

Your arm bones are attached to your shoulders at the scapula, a triangle shaped bone in your upper back. The bone above your elbow is called the humerus, and the two side-by-side bones below the elbow are the radius and the ulna.

Sample

This is only a sample pre-made worksheet.