My little preschooler loves hands-on activities, and it if includes glue, it is even better. After reading the very silly Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler, we learned a little about the skeletal system and then did a q-tip swab skeleton craft. What a perfect learning activity for the Halloween season!
About the Book Skeleton Hiccups
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler is particularly funny because there the poor skeleton cannot get rid of hiccups in the normal ways (drink water upside down, push his eyeballs, etc.). He must be creative. The illustrations are hilarious but they do happen to show a full skeleton. It was a perfect model for our own skeleton creation.
Skeleton Hiccups also provided information for discussion. Why did the water go straight down to the floor? Why couldn’t Skeleton do some of the tasks? Which bones on Skeleton can you find on your own body?
After we read the book, we did a Skeleton Hiccups activity.
Making the Q-Tip Skeleton Craft
To do this activity, we needed these things:
Funny story: my daughter could not remember the word for the swabs, so she called them the “ear cleaners” during our entire Q-Tip skeletons activity!
To make the skeletons, we cut the Q-tips to various sizes. Then we poured Elmer’s glue on the papers in the places that the skeleton needed bones. My preschooler loved putting on the glue. We then put the cotton-tip swabs on the paper on the glue.
We felt our own bones under our skin as we created our skeleton.
“Our teeth are bones?” She was surprised by that fact.
She liked calling fingers and toes phalanges, and finding our ribs caused a bit of tickling.
Extending our Preschool Skeleton Learning
We also looked at Steve Jenkins’ book Bones. The fold out pages of skeletons were cool to look at! It also shared some fun facts about skeletons from different animals. My preschooler's favorite skeleton was the snake's.
We also watched a BrainPop, Jr. movie about animal classification. She took exception to the fact that we are vertebrates.
“I am not a vertebrate!” she exclaimed. She didn't like that term, and it took a moment to discuss what it meant.
After our skeleton was done, she wanted to do another one, this time a monster skeleton. I love how it turned out.
See more fun skeleton activities at these blogs:
- Books about Bones and Skeletons
- Chalk skeleton craft
- X-Rays to Play Doctor
- You may also enjoy more preschool picture book lessons from my own archives!