If you can afford it, use card stock because it lasts longer; if not, paper will do. Also, find a picture of a skeleton from an anatomy book or a Halloween magazine. This will give you a starting point. A sample image will be attached to this article.
The arms have three two main sections with three main bones. Depending on your needs and your pieces of card stock, you may want to have one piece of card stock for each part of the arm. The upper arm has one bone, the humerus. The lower arm has the radius and the ulna. With the picture as your guide, draw the bones in relation to one another. The hand has many bones in it. If you need good detail, use an anatomy picture as a guide and carefully form the carpals, metacarpals and phalanges. Once you have drawn the bones, cut them out and attach them as the picture shows.
The legs are similar to the arms. The upper leg is the femur; the lower leg bones are the tibia and fibula. The foot bones are the tarsals, metatarsals and the phalanges (phalanges represent both the toes and fingers). Once you have recreated the leg bones, cut them out. If you are looking for a more anatomically correct skeleton, make the legs one and a half times the length of the arms.
You'll need two pieces for the ribs and pelvis. Follow the drawing to recreate the ribs and pelvis. If you want to be anatomically correct, make 12 pairs of ribs. The pair at the very bottom does not stretch all the way to the front. Also, make sure the spine is shown to connect to each pair of ribs. Most humans have 24 vertebrae. Seven will be taken care of in the next section, so that leaves 17 more for the ribs and pelvis to share. If you want to be really specific, draw shoulder blades, sockets and collar bones near the top of the rips as shown in the drawing. For the pelvis, follow the drawing, and make sure to include the sacrum and coccyx at the end of the spine.
The head should proportioned to the rest of the body. As previously stated, there will be seven spinal bones at the bottom of the rendering to connect to the rib piece. Make sure to include eye sockets, a nose socket, a bottom jaw and teeth. If you want to add more detail, show the separate bones of the skull.
If you haven't already, fasten the pieces together. The bottom of the skull spine will connect to the rib spine. The upper legs will fasten to either side of the hip/pelvis bones. The shoulder blades/sockets will connect to the upper arms. This being done, you should have yourself a great skeleton.