Make Animal Tracks

You do not need to be planning a trip to a sandy beach to try out this fun activity. It can just as easily be done in a sandbox or at a playground that has sand. Follow along with Arianne’s tutorial and discover how to turn inexpensive flip-flops into fun animal track shoes.

Read through the Tutorial: How to Make Animal Track Shoes.

Animal track shoes are creative tools that allow children to imprint animal footprints as they walk, simulating the tracks of various creatures. These shoes can be crafted by attaching cut-out shapes of animal paws to the soles of flip-flops or similar footwear, enabling children to leave behind patterns resembling those of real animals.

Activities Utilizing Animal Track Shoes

Nature Walks and Tracking Exercises: Children can wear these shoes during outdoor excursions to create tracks in soft terrains like sand or mud. This activity encourages them to observe and compare their artificial tracks with real animal footprints, enhancing their tracking skills and attention to detail.

Storytelling and Imaginative Play: Incorporating animal track shoes into storytelling sessions allows children to act out narratives involving animals, fostering creativity and empathy as they embody different creatures.

Art Projects: Using the shoes to stamp tracks onto paper or fabric can be an engaging art activity, helping children explore patterns and develop fine motor skills.

Scientific Exploration: Educators can design experiments where children create tracks and analyze them, introducing basic scientific concepts such as observation, hypothesis formation, and experimentation.

What are the benefits of Animal Track Activities for Children

Enhanced Observation Skills: Tracking activities teach children to notice subtle details in their environment, sharpening their observational abilities.

Spatial Awareness: Following and creating tracks helps children understand spatial relationships and movement patterns, contributing to their physical development.
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Empathy and Connection to Nature: Engaging with animal tracks fosters a sense of connection to wildlife and the environment, promoting empathy and ecological awareness.

Critical Thinking: Determining which animal made a particular track encourages analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Physical Activity: These activities involve walking, bending, and sometimes climbing, promoting physical health and coordination.

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

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