A Guide to Using Animal Tracks Activities with Kids
Inside: You can also mention why learning about animal tracks is important for kids, such as identifying different species and appreciating nature.
Children are naturally curious about the world around them — especially when it comes to animals. One of the best ways to connect young children and older children alike with the natural world is by learning about animal tracks. From spotting raccoon tracks on a muddy path to following a trail of paw prints in the snow, animal tracking is a fun activity that combines outdoor adventure with valuable lessons in observation, science, and critical thinking.
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A Guide to Using Animal Tracks Activities with Kids
If you’ve been looking for a fun way to engage your kids on your next nature walk, add a little science to your homeschool, or simply spark their imagination, you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’ll explore different ways to use animal track activities with kids — plus the materials you’ll need and age-appropriate ideas for making it memorable.
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Why Teach Kids About Animal Tracks?
There’s something magical about finding a set of footprints on a trail and wondering what creature left them behind. Teaching kids about animal tracks does more than satisfy their curiosity — it builds important skills like:
- Observation & critical thinking: Noticing track size, shape, and patterns.
- Fine motor skills: Tracing, matching, and drawing tracks.
- Social emotional learning: Learning to respect animals and nature.
- Outdoor exploration: Encouraging time outside in deep snow, along river banks, or in a national park.
- Cultural awareness: Understanding how Native Americans and other cultures followed animals for survival and storytelling.
It’s also a great way to incorporate earth sciences, social studies, and storybook STEM activities into your lesson plans, whether you’re teaching 1st grade science or planning thematic units for older children.
Fun Ways to Use Animal Track Activities
Ready to get started? Here are some simple, engaging ways to use animal tracks in your home, classroom, or outdoor adventures:
Animal Track Nature Walk
Grab a field guide or an animal tracks information set, and head out on a nature walk. Encourage your kids to look for footprints in mud, sand, or snow. Can they find tracks from a variety of animals like a white-tailed deer, raccoon, or mountain lion? Take photos or sketch the tracks you find to identify them later.
Pro tip: My printable Animal Tracks Bundle is a perfect addition for this activity, with cards showing animal photographs and their matching paw prints — making it easy for little ones to compare what they see in real life.
Animal Track Detective Game
Turn your backyard or classroom into a detective adventure. Hide track cards, animal toys, or pictures of the animals around the space. Kids become animal track detectives, matching each footprint to its animal. This works beautifully as a scavenger hunt or small group activity.
Storybook STEM Pairing
Pair nature stories with animal tracking! Classic picture books like A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats or Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee make wonderful read-alouds. After the story, have children guess which animal made the tracks and use printable cards to match them.
Fun idea: Let kids create their own tracks in playdough using animal toys — then guess who made each one!
Animal Tracks Flash Cards
Enjoy these Animal Flash Cards with your young learners.
What do you get?
- 2 pages to write the animal names
- 15 flashcards with names of animals
- 15 flashcards to match the name to the animal
Animal Footprint Puzzles & Matching Games
Use self-correcting animal footprint puzzles for independent learning or learning centers. Kids match paw prints to pictures of the animals, improving fine motor skills and critical thinking. These are great for 1st grade science or special education settings where visuals and hands-on activities shine.
Thematic Unit Add-Ons
Add animal track activities to your existing units on:
- Earth sciences
- Social studies (Native Americans and tracking)
- Physical education (outdoor scavenger hunts)
- Social emotional learning (respecting animals in the wild)
Use a printable animal track bundle to seamlessly blend science-themed fun into any lesson.
Animal Tracks Clip Cards
Enjoy these Animal Tracks Clip Cards for learning more about the animal tracks you see outside.
What do you get?
- 1 poster with labeled animal tracks
- 15 cards to match the track to the animal
- 15 cards to match the animal to the tracks
Suggested Activities by Age Group
To make it easy to plan, here’s a breakdown of age-appropriate ideas:
Young Children (Pre-K to 1st Grade)
- Large picture cards with animal photographs and paw prints.
- Simple scavenger hunts.
- Animal track memory games.
- Animal tracks crafts (paint or stamp your own tracks).
Older Children (2nd Grade and Up)
- Track detective roleplay games.
- Nature journal sketches.
- Storybook STEM paired with track identification.
- Social skills group work identifying animal idioms (like “on the right track”).
Middle School & High School
- In-depth earth sciences studies on animal habitats and tracks.
- Animal tracking projects in national parks.
- Discussions on cultural tracking methods from Native Americans.
- Animal track detective challenges using control cards and field guides.
Animal Tracks Bundle
Enjoy these 28 pages of Animal Track fun. These are a great addition to your nature study or forest school. This is a BUNDLE of the following three products:
- Animal Tracks Identify the Tracks
- Animal Tracks Flash Cards
- Animal Tracks Clip Cards
Recommended Materials & Printable Resources
To get started, you’ll want a few handy resources:
- Printable Animal Track Cards & Bundles (like this one I made) with animal photos and footprints.
- North America-specific field guides for identifying local animal tracks.
- Picture books: A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee.
- Animal toys for track stamping in snow, sand, or clay.
- Animal track puzzles and memory games.
- Journals for nature walk observations.
If you’re looking for print-and-go activities, my Animal Track Bundle includes scavenger hunt cards, matching puzzles, information sheets, and detective clue cards — perfect for a variety of settings, from homeschool lessons to classroom learning centers.
Exploring animal tracks with kids is a fun way to build connection with the natural world while developing critical skills. Whether you’re out on a snowy day, exploring river banks, or setting up a thematic unit in the classroom, these activities spark curiosity and a sense of adventure.
With a variety of animals to track — from polar bears and grizzly bears to arctic hares and raccoons — you’ll never run out of mysteries for your young animal detectives to solve.
Ready to start tracking? Grab a printable resource, head outside, and see where the tracks lead you.
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