Bone Facts for Kids
Do you know that underneath all your skin is a skeleton? Every human and many animals have a skeleton. These skeletons are made up of bones. Do you know what bones are? How about how many bones you have? You have 206 bones in your body! That’s a lot of bones and they all have their own functions and characteristics. Keep reading these bone facts for kids to learn about all 206 bones and what they do.
What Are Bones?
1. Bones are the hardest part of your body. They are four times stronger than concrete!
2. Your bones are made of living tissue and have their own blood vessels. The red blood cells and white blood cells in bones help keep bones strong and healthy.
Bone Facts for Kids – How Many Bones are in Your Body?
3. You have 206 bones in your body. These include your leg bones, facial bones, collar bones, hip bones, and shoulder blades. That’s right! Your shoulder blades are bones too!
4. Babies have more bones than adults – they have about 300! Over time, these bones meet and fuse together to form fewer, larger bones. How cool is that?
Bone Sizes
5. Long bones in your body include the tibia, fibula, radius, and ulna but nothing compares to your thigh bone. Your thigh bone, or femur, is the largest bone, strongest bone, and longest bone in your body. It can grow up to 20 inches long depending on your height and it is the only bone known to support as much as 30 times the weight of your body!
6. The smallest bone in your body is the stapes (ear bone). These tiny bones connects your middle ear with your inner ear.
7. A human skeleton can make up about 20% of your total body weight, so believe it or not, bones are actually pretty heavy. That’s one of the reasons they are so strong.
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Bone Facts for Kids – The Strength of Bones
8. Bones are strong because they contain minerals like calcium and phosphorous.
9. Your bones are constantly being remodeled – osteoblasts build new bone tissue, while osteoclasts break down old bone tissue. This process helps keep your bones strong and healthy.
10. You can think of your bones as a kind of “construction site” – they’re always growing, breaking down, and rebuilding themselves. The bone cells that make up your bones are constantly being replaced, so every 10 years you will actually have a whole new human skeleton!
Functions of Different Bones
11. Bones in the human skeletal system provide support for different parts of your body and protect your vital organs.
12. The skull protects important organs, such as your brain, the ribs protect your internal organs, like your heart and lungs, and the vertebrae, or vertebral column protects your spinal cord.
Bone Facts for Kids – What’s Inside the Bone?
13. Bones are made up of several different types of tissue, including bone marrow, compact bone, and cancellous bone.
14. Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside your bones where blood cells are made.
15. Compact bone, also known as cortical bone, is the hard outer layer of bone that you can see and feel.
16. Cancellous bone is the spongy inner layer of bone that provides strength and support.
Protecting and Caring for Your Bones
17. As you get older, your bones may become more porous and less dense, which can make them more fragile and more likely to break. Have you ever broken a bone?
18. You can help keep your bones healthy by eating a balanced diet that includes plenty of calcium-rich foods, getting enough exercise, and avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.
19. Bone diseases like osteoporosis, which causes the bone to become weak and porous, are more common in older adults. but everyone can take steps to protect their bone health! What do you plan to do to keep your bones healthy and strong?
More Fun Bone Facts for Kids
20. Did you know the bone on the tip of your elbow is called your funny bone? If you’ve ever hit it off something, though, you know it’s not really all that funny.
21. Have you ever thought about what part of your body has the most humans bones? I’ll give you a hint, you’re probably using them right now. Your hands! Human hands have the most bones when compared to other parts of the body. One hand has 27 bones!
Let’s Summarize Bone Facts for Kids
We just learned all about bones and our skeletons. What bone fascinates you the most? I think it’s super cool that one hand alone contains 27 bones, although I’ve always been intrigued by the rib cage. How does this open bone structure protect our internal organs, like our heart and lungs so well? And why is one bone responsible for protecting our entire brain? That seems like a big job to me. What other bones would you like to learn more about? Let us know and be sure to always stay learning!
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