We’ve been learning about the human body as part of our homeschool curriculum and my preschooler never wants to be left out of anything. This simple preschool art activity is perfect for teaching preschoolers about their skeleton or as part of a Halloween theme.

I love projects that are open-ended and allow kids to use their imagination. This easy skeleton project lets kids customize their skeleton just the way they want it. Older kids can use it as a science project and label the major bones in the body.

Materials Needed

Black paper

Q-tips

Glue

Scissors

Instructions

Give your preschooler a black piece of construction paper (or any color of his choice ). I’m always a fan of letting kids make a project their own, which is why my son’s skeleton has a samurai hat 🙂 .

Q-Tips can be a bit tricky to cut with kid scissors so you’ll either want to precut a bunch of different sizes for younger kids or supervise older kids with adult scissors.

Show your kids a picture of a skeleton. We have a fun model of a skeleton from Learning Resources that my kids love and we use all the time for any science projects about the human body. If you don’t have that, you can always find a book or an image online that shows a basic skeleton.

Have your kids use the Q-tips to create their own skeleton. Point out that the Q-tips are shaped a bit like the bones are.

When your kids have positioned their Q-tips on their paper, help them use glue to stick them to the page.

When their Q-tip skeleton is dry, you can hang it up as part of a Halloween decoration or use it as part of a science bulletin board display about the human body.

Adaptation for Older Kids: Older kids love this project too. You can make it a bit harder by having them label the major bones in the body after they have completed their Q-tip skeleton.

Follow this project up with this fun skeleton song. My kids love it and it’s a great way to help preschoolers understand how their skeleton fits together.

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