This 3-page 4th grade science worksheet covers the human skeleton. Students write the names of ten numbered bones on a front-view diagram, using a word bank that pairs common names with science names, such as thigh bone (femur) and kneecap (patella). Page 2 asks four short questions about the longest bone, the bones that protect the heart and lungs, the bone that protects the brain and what the spine is made of. Page 3 is the answer key. It supports NGSS 4-LS1-1.
4-LS1-1
“Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.”
Page 1 names the bones of the human skeleton, and questions 1 to 4 on page 2 ask which bones protect the heart, lungs and brain and what the spine is made of.
A skeleton diagram has ten numbered pointer lines. Students choose from a word bank of ten bones, from skull (cranium) to shin bone (tibia), and write each name on its numbered line.
Four questions with two writing lines each. Students name the longest bone in the body, the bones that form a cage around the heart and lungs, the bone that protects the brain, and what the spine is made of.
All ten labels in number order, then a one-sentence answer to each question. The spine answer names the small ring-shaped bones called vertebrae.
Cold start
Hand it out before the skeleton lesson. The word bank supplies every name, so the sheet shows who can already place a bone, not who can spell it.
Point to your own
Ask students to find their own kneecap, collarbone and ribs before they write. Touching the bone first makes the names stick.
Exit ticket
Use page 2 on its own as a short task at the end of the lesson. Question 4 shows who remembers that the spine is a stack of separate bones.
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