Designed by occupational therapist, Dr. Lisa Marnell, these 32 cards contribute to building a child's listening skills, body awareness, and motor planning. Also, tips to integrate math and ELA language practice into activities are provided.
 
These cards come in two sizes for your convenience:
1- Four cards per page
2- Two cards per page
 
Two-Sided Printing:
With two-sided printing, it is easy for an adult to read a card to children while they look at the picture. This resource has been set up to so automatic two-sided printing on your printer. However, many printers and computers have unique settings. Please reach out to TPT if you have any printing challenges.
 
How do Animal Walks Benefit Children?
 
Build Listening Skills: Building listening skills should be a vital part of a child’s skill building in the early years. Some benefits of good listening include more confidence, better engagement in classroom activities, fewer misunderstandings and frustration, improved receptive and expressive language, and stronger reading and reading readiness. Animal walks are such fun for kids that they are primed to listen and participate. They want to master each animal’s moves and so listen well to directions.
 
Improve Body Awareness: Body awareness entails a child’s awareness of where his or her body is in space and how each part is moving separately. Children need good body awareness for sports, but it is also important for maneuvering carefully through a cluttered and busy classroom. Also, good body awareness helps children develop concepts of up/down, right/left which is important as a child work on handwriting and learns to organize written work.
 
Increase Motor Planning Skill: Motor planning describes how a child plans his body movements. An element of motor planning includes paying good attention to directions and sequencing these directions correctly. Animal walks are not simple. They require motor planning, and its requisite sequencing and timing. Participation in activities that practice motor planning provides a good foundation to help children learn to master more complex, multi-step directions for academics, as well.
 
Integrate Movement with Academics: Recent research completed in Denmark shows that children gain and retain math facts more quickly when they are engaged in gross motor movement (Myrto-Foteini 2017). Pairing math and language practice with a motivating movement activity like animal walks is an ideal way to address and improve children’s academics. Ideas to combine animal walks and academics are suggested.