Making a chickensaurus is a fun project but its not easy so be ready for a challenge. It is a good project to do together because you need lots of hands and different sets of eyes to help put the bones together again.

What You Need

• One dead chicken (including head and feet)
• A large pot and access to a kitchen
• Rubber gloves, protective goggles and tongs
• Draino or equivilant
• A plastic icecream tub with a lid
• Pictures of the skeletal structure of birds and chickens
• fine wire (we used florists wire)
• A hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Adults to help with the difficult bits (like cleaning up)

What To Do

If you can get a chicken that has already been plucked it makes things easier and you can go straight to step 2 if not here's what you need to do...

1. Bring the water to the boil ( its a good idea to get an adult to help with this part) plunge in the chicken for about a minute. Then use the tongs to pull it out. When it has cooled a bit you can pluck it. We were lucky we made our teacher do this bit.
2. Once your chicken is plucked put it back in the boiling water for about four hours. After four hours most of the meat will come away from the bones easily. Carefully collect up all the bones. We used a sieve to make sure we didn't loose any small bones.
3. This next step is the tricky bit because you are using a caustic product to get rid of the meat and whiten the bones. Be sure to wear the rubber gloves and the goggles when using the Draino. Put all the bones into the plastic icecream container and pour the Draino over them. Put the lid on and leave them for about a day.
4. Wear your gloves and goggles and rinse the bones under running water be careful not to loose any down the drain.
5. When the bones are dry lay them out using the photographs to help you identify where they go.
6. Use your glue gun to put your skeleton together
7. Display your chickensuarus