Bone by Bone
Putting steps in order, the way a museum builds a skeleton: a Muttaburrasaurus and a Diprotodon.
How it plays
Pictures of a skeleton being put together in a museum, mixed up. Ruby Roo asks “What comes first?” and your child puts them in order: the back legs and hips, then the backbone and ribs, then the head. One is Muttaburrasaurus, a dinosaur; the other is Diprotodon, the biggest marsupial ever. Three steps, then four. At the end Ruby Roo reads it back.
What it's for
Putting steps in order, the way a museum builds a skeleton: a Muttaburrasaurus and a Diprotodon. There is no score to lose and no way to fail: a wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's done.
Away from the screen: A skeleton from the cupboard
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Find some long things (pegs, straws or spoons) for bones.
- Lay out the legs first, then the backbone, then the head.
- Your child tells you what goes next.
- Give it a name. Is it a dinosaur?
Three questions to ask while they play
- What do you need first, so the skeleton can stand up?
- Where does the head go?
- Which animal do you think it was?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- First the legs and the hips. What comes next?
- Diprotodon was the biggest marsupial ever!
Taking turns on one device: Take turns choosing the next picture.
If they find it hard
Point to the stand in each picture: the skeleton grows upward from it. Start with first and last; the middle follows.
Every fact, and where it comes from
What Ruby Roo says in Bone by Bone was checked against the page it links to.
- Muttaburrasaurus was discovered near Muttaburra in central Queensland. About 7 metres long, it was mainly or entirely a plant-eater with an unusual rounded bony snout, and lived between about 125 and 100 million years ago. (Australian Museum)
- Diprotodon optatum is the largest marsupial known: up to 3.8 metres long, 1.7 metres at the shoulder and about 2,800 kilograms. Its feet turned in, as in wombats. Hundreds have been found at Lake Callabonna in South Australia. It became extinct about 25,000 years ago. (Australian Museum)
What it practises
- Putting a story in order. Retelling a story from its pictures: what happened first, next and last.
AC9EFLE03 (English, Foundation); AC9EFLE05 (English, Foundation); AC9EFLY05 (English, Foundation) - Australian animals. What animals look like and where they live (My animal friends cards).
AC9SFU01 (Science, Foundation); AC9S1U01 (Science, Year 1)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Bone by Bone is part of Fossil Finders. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated