Packing Peanuts on Construction Paper

• Using a printed skeleton illustration or creating your own, have young children color and glue packing peanuts to the illustration that will represent the skeleton's arms and ribs. The skeleton illustration has four rectangles for a replication of ribs, and his legs and arms consist of eight rectangles, each the right size for packing peanuts. This project is meant for younger children that can color and glue, but are not at the stage of drawing yet.
  
  

Draw Your Own Skeleton

• Older kids that are at the point of drawing can create their own skeleton and form the ribcage with packing peanuts. Black construction paper, a white Crayon, plastic googly eyes, glue and, of course, packing peanuts are all used for this activity. Children draw their own skeleton on the black construction paper and then form the ribcage by gluing six packing peanuts in two even rows side by side. The googly eyes add a last playful touch.
  
  

Packing Peanuts Connected with Wire

• For adults or older children, packing peanuts can be strung together using wire to create a skeleton. Realistic-looking skeleton arms or hands can be placed around haunted houses or spooky parties. The forearm is crafted by cutting the shape out of foam. The fingers are made of packing peanuts by molding the foam around where the joints of the fingers would be to allow the fingers to curl up. Flexible wire is then run through the inside the packing peanuts and attached to the foam forearm. The result is a creepy curling hand that looks like it is about to grab someone.
  
  

Three-dimensional Skull Model

• For the really ambitious, a skull can be fashioned entirely out of packing peanuts and glue. A ball is formed by gluing the packing peanuts together with a hot glue gun. Once the ball is a little smaller than the desired size of the skull, add more packing peanuts in certain places, leaving round and triangle holes in the surface to represent the eye sockets, the jaw, the nose and the temples.