What does the Skeleton Do? If you have ever visited a construction site, you have seen workers assemble steel pieces into a rigid frame for a building. Once the building is finished, this framework is invisible. Like a building, you have an inner framework. Your framework or skeleton , is made up of all the bones in your body. Just as a building would fall without its frame, you would collapse without your skeleton. Your skeleton have five major functions. It provides shape and support, enable you to move, and protects your organs It also produces blood cells and stores minerals and other materials until your body cells and stores minerals and other materials until your body needs them. Shape and support Your skeleton shapes and supports your body. It is made up of about 206 bones of different shapes and sizes. Your backbone, or vertebral column, is the center of your skeleton. A total of 26 small bones, or vertebrae (VUR tuh bray) (singular vertebra), make up your backbone