Animal Tracks

Activity Overview

Exploring items and the impressions they make is foundational to building hand strength and finger grasp. It is also an experience in understanding shapes and textures and how objects in the world interact with one another. Animals and the tracks made by their feet, hooves, talons, claws, and paws are both interesting and exciting! It is intriguing to investigate how marks are left behind, and learn that we as humans also leave marks - by impacting others and making ripples in our daily lives, around our communities, and through our stories.

What You Need

• Animal Images and Tracks

• Clay or playdough (we recommend homemade – see our playdough recipe here)

• Animal figurines and other toys (blocks, Legos, marbles, counters, cars, trucks)

Steps

1. Spend a few minutes viewing and discussing the Animal Images and Tracks. Observe the tracks that familiar animals leave in the sand, mud, and snow. Use your animal figurines to make impressions in the playdough and observe the tracks.

2. Explore the tracks your body parts leave when you make impressions in the playdough. Use your fingers, hands, elbows, knees, bare feet, and feet while wearing shoes!

3. Use your toys as tools! Explore the tracks your toys make in the playdough when you push them down, roll them around, and move them through the playdough.

Guiding Questions

• What animal do you see?

• What sound does the animal make?

• What part of the animal do you think made the tracks?

• Describe the tracks you see. Are they short, long? Straight, curved, zigzag, round? Shallow, deep?

• Compare the tracks between the [horse] and the [deer]. What looks similar? What looks different?

• Describe the tracks your [fingers, hands, elbows, knees, feet] make. Are they short, long? Straight, curved, zigzag, round? Shallow, deep?

• Describe how the tracks feel.

• Describe the tracks your toy makes. Are they short, long? Straight, curved, zigzag, round? Shallow, deep?

Extensions

• Gather some household objects – markers, crayons, books, cups, bowls, spoons, forks, chopsticks – and explore what impressions they make in the playdough.

• Collect some items on a nature walk – pinecones, acorns, bark, leaves, flowers, sticks. Explore the impressions various found materials make in the playdough.

• Explore how pushing harder, applying less pressure, stretching, and rolling impact the track the object makes. Print out the Black and White Animals Images and Tracks and use paint, crayons, or markers to color them in. Cut the images and tracks into two cards. Mix them up and play a matching or memory game!