The Skeletal System

Your skeleton is the frame of your body. It is made of hard parts called bones. Without bones, you would be a floppy blob. Your bones help you stand, walk, and move.

Your Bones

Grown-ups have 206 bones in their body. Kids have even more because some bones join together as they grow. Your biggest bone is in your thigh. Your smallest bone is inside your ear.

A full human skeleton on display at a museum.
A full human skeleton on display at a museum. (Sklmsta / Wikimedia Commons)

What Bones Do

Bones give your body its shape and keep you upright. They also protect important parts inside you. Your skull protects your brain and your ribs protect your heart and lungs. Bones also make new blood inside their soft middle, called marrow.

Fun Facts

  • Babies are born with about 300 bones.
  • Your hands and feet have more than half of all your bones.
  • Bones are stronger than steel of the same weight.

Did You Know?

Bones can fix themselves when they break. New bone slowly grows to fill in the crack.