Your Hands
As you sit and type at the keyboard, while you swing on a swing, even when you pick up your lunch, you're using the bones in your fingers, hand, wrist, and arm.

Each arm is attached to a shoulder blade or scapula (say: sca-pyuh-luh), a large triangular bone on the upper back corner of each side of the rib cage. The arm is made up of three bones: the humerus (say: hyoo-muh-rus), which is above your elbow, and the radius (say: ray-dee-us) and ulna (say: ul-nuh), which are below the elbow.

Each of these bones is wider at the ends and skinnier in the middle, to help give it strength where it meets another bone. At the end of the radius and ulna are eight smaller bones that make up your wrist. Although these bones are small, they can really move! Twist your wrist around or wave and you'll see how the wrist can move.

The center part of your hand is made up of five separate bones. Each finger on your hand has three bones, except for your thumb, which has two. So between your wrists, hands, and all your fingers, you've got a grand total of 54 bones - all ready to help you grasp things, write your name, pick up the phone, or throw a softball!

Your Legs
Sure, arm, wrist, hand, and finger bones are great for picking up the phone, but how are you supposed to run to answer it? Well, with the bones of the legs and feet! Your legs are attached to a circular group of bones called your pelvis. The pelvis is a bowl-shaped structure that supports the spinal column. It is made up of the two large hip bones in front and behind are the sacrum and the coccyx. The pelvis acts as a tough ring of protection around parts of the digestive system, the urinary system, and parts of the reproductive system.

Your leg bones are very large and strong to help support the weight of your body. The bone that goes from your pelvis to your knee is called the femur (say: fee-mur), and it's the longest bone in your body. At the knee, there's a triangular-shaped bone called the patella, or kneecap, that protects the knee joint. Below the knee are two other leg bones: the tibia (say: tih-bee-uh) and the fibula (say: fih-byuh-luh). Just like the three bones in the arm, the three bones in the leg are wider at the ends than in the middle to give them strength.

The ankle is a bit different from the wrist; it has three larger bones and four smaller ones. But the main part of the foot is similar to the hand, with five bones. Each toe has three tiny bones, except for your big toe, which has just two. This brings the bone total in both feet and ankles to 52!

Most people don't use their toes and feet for grabbing stuff or writing, but they do use them for two very important things: standing and walking. Without all the bones of the foot working together, it would be impossible to balance properly. The bones in the feet are arranged so the foot is almost flat and a bit wide, to help you stay upright. So the next time you're walking, be sure to look down and thank those toes!