Make a model hand!

Of the 206 bones in the human body you have 27 bones in each hand. You have 14 phalanges bones or finger bones, 5 metacarpal bones and 8 carpal bones. This means that about 1/4 of all of your bones are found in your two hands!!

To demonstrate how amazing your hand is we are going to be making a model of your hand that moves...


To start you will need to get a piece of card. This can either be an A4 piece of craft card or a piece of cardboard packaging like from a cereal box. The first thing you will need to do is draw around your hand. If this is difficult, or if you have small hands you might like to draw around an adults hand. 

You can then cut out your hand. 

You then want to get a straw and cut it into small sections. These small sections are going to be the bones in your hand and you will tape them to the hand where the bones would be. You will need 3 small pieces for each finger and 2 for the thumb and you will need 1 larger piece for the metacarpal bone for each finger and thumb.

You are then going to thread a piece of string or wool through the straw pieces and tape it to the end of each finger or thumb. You will also want to bend your hand between each straw piece to make the joints in your hand.

The last thing you need to do is take your small piece of paper and roll in into a tube. This can then be taped at the wrist section of the hand. All 5 of the strings can be threaded through here. 

Your hand should now be finished!


If you pull the strings then your hand should move. You could also pull just one string and one finger will move.

I hope you have fun making this. You can decorate it, change the colour of the straws or the threads to make it personal to you...



The video tutorial for this activity is available on the Surrey Libraries Facebook Page or on the Surrey Libraries YouTube Channel.