Little learners love exploring the animal kingdom and learning all about different animals. Covering animal tracks is the perfect way to include some hands-on activities and art projects for your students to get involved in. We’ve gathered 20 fun activities for students in Kindergarten up to 3rd Grade to learn about animal tracks. From identifying animals from their footprints to creating your very own animal tracks artworks, our list has you covered for this exciting topic. Read on to learn more!
Activities for Kindergartners
1. Use Animal Tracks as Non-Standard Units of Measure
Using these different animal track templates, students can measure the length of different items in the classroom. This activity is perfect to combine non-standard units of measure and learning about different animal tracks.
Learn More: Kindergarten Cafe
2. Count Up How Many
In this free printable, students must count how many of each different type of animal footprint there are and then write the numbers in the corresponding boxes.
Learn More: Dreamstime
3. Trace Animal Tracks
This tracing activity helps students practice their pen/pencil grip as they trace the dotted outline of a variety of tracks. You can set this activity up on a large piece of paper so students can work on the activity in groups.
Learn More: Little Pine Learners
4. Animal Tracks Spot The Difference
Students must look at the images closely to spot the differences between the top and bottom pictures of animal tracks in the snow.
Learn More: Exploring Nature
5. Play Animal Track Jump
Draw some animal tracks on the ground and let students jump from one to the other whilst counting or calling out the colors of the track they land on.
Learn More: Modern Pre-School
6. Make an Animal Track Trail For Your Students
Create a shaker with a jam jar by punching a few holes in the top. Then, you can use the free printable templates to cut out and use with the shakers filled with flour to create a trail of animal tracks to bring some excitement to your next nature scavenger hunt!
Learn More: The Practical Forest School
7. Bake Animal Track Cookies
Use this simple recipe to make cookie dough. Students can then use animal print stamps to make tracks in the cookies. Bake and then add jam to the footprints to make them stand out.
Learn More: Ontario Science Centre
8. Turn Hand Prints Into Paw Prints
This hand-painting activity is great for little learners who love to get messy! Paint the palms and tips of the fingers on your students’ hands and then let them create what will look like a paw print! Add claw marks at the top of the fingerprints with a paintbrush and it will look like a bear has walked across the page!
Learn More: Left Brain Craft Brain
9. Animal Track Snacks
Students can have fun trying to replicate different types of animal tracks with the food you provide. Alternatively, you could make the snacks and students can try to identify which animal track each food is replicating.
Learn More: Loreen Leedy
10. Animal Track Paint Printing
This fun activity is an excellent way to explore animal tracks with your students. Start by placing a paper towel on a paint tray. Then, add paint on top. Students can stamp their animal figurines onto the paint-soaked paper and have fun creating tracks across a sheet of white paper.
Learn More: Teach Pre-School
Activity Ideas for Grades 1-3
11. Play an Online Animal Tracks Game
This online quiz game is great for learners who are learning to identify animal tracks and also learning to read and recognize the names of different animals. Students are shown an animal track and then must pick the correct answer from three different options.
Learn More: BBC
12. Create a Snowy Animal Track Artwork
Using white paint on blue paper, students can paint using a small paintbrush or a q-tip cotton swab. The white paint will make the animal tracks stand out and look like a snowy scene!
Learn More: Things to Share and Remember
13. Create Animal Track Flip Flops
Create these flip-flops using some wood and ribbon. Draw animal prints onto foam before cutting them out and gluing them onto the bottom of your flip-flops. Use a roller to add paint to them and then let your kids have fun making tracks on a large sheet of paper.
Learn More: The Melrose Family
14. Create an Animal Track Matching Wheel
This animal track identification activity is a great way for students to learn about different animal species and the prints they leave behind! To create this wheel, students will need a paper plate, some colored paper, and pictures of animals and their tracks. Space out each animal picture around the edge of the plate and then stick the prints onto the colored circle. Fix them together with a butterfly pin so that the pieces can move.
Learn More: Simply Sprout
15. Bake Animal Track Fossils
Create some animal track fossils using this great air-drying salt dough recipe and some animal figures. Once the salt dough is made, students can flatten out a piece and stamp the animal prints into the dough. Leave it to dry and then paint it to look like a rock or stone fossil!
Learn More: Mary Clare Crafts
16. Track Matching Game
In this game, students will match animals to their descriptions and tracks. The free printable cards include some interesting facts about each animal as well as examples of the prints they leave from both their front and hind feet.
Learn More: Adventure in a Box
17. Animal Tracks Winter Scene
To create these fantastic Wintery landscapes, layer white and grey tissue paper to create the snow-covered ground. Then, using white paint, add some trees and snowfall. Finally, use animal track stampers with black paint to create the animal tracks.
Learn More: Painted Paper Art
18. Become an Animal Track Detective
This fun video shows students different animals and the tracks they make. This is a great activity to introduce animal tracks to students and highlight some of the features to look for in certain animal tracks.
Learn More: SciShow Kids
19. Set Up an Animal Track Trap
This activity is a super way for students to discover what animals visit their school or outdoor learning space whilst they’re not there! All you’ll need is some soil or sand and a tool to spread and smooth it out with. The soil or sand will capture the tracks of any animals that walk over it!
Learn More: Learning Through Landscapes
20. Learn Patterns Through Story Telling
Use clay and natural materials to create a “story scene” and then give students animal stamps to finish the story. Students can take turns looking at the different scenes and they can come up with stories about what the animal that made the tracks was doing.
Learn More: Rosie Research
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