Create your own bones!
Main Image
In this activity, we will use everyday materials to make our own bones!
This activity can be done as an extension to the lending library kit "The Bone Zone".
What You Need
- Old newspapers
- Masking tape
- Sheets of plaster cloth
- A gallon of water
- Several tea bags
Guide:
Safety Notes
Ensure you are familiar with Let's Talk Science's precautions with respect to safe virtual outreach to youth.
What To Do
- Create a bone shape out of several pieces of newspaper. Roll up several pieces into a tube shape. Roll others into small balls of various sizes. Make enough newspapers balls and tubes so that the ratio is 4 newspapers to balls to every 1 tube.
- Connect the balls to the tube shape with masking tape. Place two newspaper balls onto each end of the tube to create the most realistic bone shape
- Make tea using a gallon of water. Use tea bags loose tea is not good for this project because you do not want any tea leaves to get on your finished product. The tea will be used to dye the plaster cloth used in the next step.
- Dip 1 piece of plaster cloth into a bowl of the tea. Plaster cloth is a cloth that hardens into an outer shell when it becomes wet and is then wrapped around a surface such as your newspaper bones. Dipping the plaster cloth into the tea will dye the cloth a yellowish grey and will give your bones an aged look
- Remove the plaster cloth from the tea. Squeeze the tea out of it by running the cloth between your middle and index fingers. If your plaster cloth is too wet when applied to the newspaper, your newspaper bone might lose some of its shape.
- Smooth the plaster cloth over your newspaper bone. Start at one of the ends of the bone and work your way down to the other end. Cover the bone in plaster cloth pieces. When the bone is entirely covered, place it somewhere safe to let it dry
- Paint your bones white or some other color. Only do this if you do not care for the aged coloring that the dyed plaster cloth gives your bones.
