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We are continuing on our study of animal identification and learning more about their characteristics. After watching Deadly 60 series of Steve Backshall, we discovered that you can also identify animals by the tracks they make! So we used our favourite Schleich animal figures to test this. We randomly dipped the animals in the black paint and freely made tracks. Vito’s helping as well!
The tracks and trails an animal leaves can tell us the type of animals it is and whether it was walking or running, and you can also tell if it was by itself or with a group of other animals.
Footprints of animals are very tricky to identify unlike that of humans! But by thorough investigation, you can tell if the animal is hoofed or with paws or toes. To learn about the footprints of these animals, one must have a proper observation for these unique characteristics.
Animal tracks to note:
- Did the animals walk on 2 or 4 feet?
- Does the animal left a large or small track?
- Was it walking or running?
- Was it just one animal or followed by another?
Using our printable and the actual tracks, Mavi grouped the animals according to the characteristics of their footprints:
- Raccoon and bear have 4 toes front and 5 toes rear, they have claws.
- Dog, fox and wolf have 4 toes front, 5 toes rear and produces an egg shaped track
- Lion, lynx produces a round track with claws, 4 toes front and 5 toes rear
- Deer, elk have heart shaped tracks and has 4 toes front and 5 toes rear
And the highlight of this lesson is for them to see how their footprints look like!
Materials Used:
Thank you for taking time to read this post! You might as well visit our Zoo Animal Tracks post for another activity that involves playdough. It’s a not as messy as black paint 
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I love this lesson on footprints! :) It looks like your boys had a lot of fun. :) This is a wonderful link up party too! ;)
ReplyDeleteAnimal tracks are the coolest thing ever! My kiddos love learning about them. Such great activities!
ReplyDeleteThank you ladies!
ReplyDeleteI'll try to do this activity at home but am wondering if the animal figures could be cleaned well after dipping them in black paint?
ReplyDelete