A discrete particle model of thin shells with large displacement and large rotation analysis capability was constructed based on the principle of finite particle method and K-L classical thin shell theory, and the fundamental governing equations and formulas were derived. For the particle displacement and the deformation and internal force of the shell element, the two parts corresponding to the in-plane tension and the out-of-plane bending and twisting were split and superimposed, respectively. The pure deformation related with the membrane rigidity and bending rigidity was sequentially separated by using a physical modeling procedure involving fictitious motions. Then in the local deformation coordinate system, the internal forces and moments were solved, and the explicit time integral formula with variable step sizes for calculation of the out-of-plane rotation was established. The determinations of several key parameters were also given, including particle mass, time step and damping. Moreover, an stress correction algorithm for solving material nonlinearity was introduced to simulate the dynamic nonlinear behavior of a thin shell with large elastic-plastic strain. The efficiency and validity of the presented method and the self-developed program are verified by several benchmark examples of nonlinear shell dynamics.