Animal Movement Games for Preschoolers

These funny animal walks can focus preschoolers indoors, as they move about the room; or outdoors while walking at the park, along the street, or even, I suppose, at the mall. Because today was a cold, rainy day and school vacation is just a few days away, I figured the preschool class that I visit throughout the school year wouldn’t be up to learning about another local animal. I thought that today would be a good day for games.

Duck Walk – The children are ducklings; the instructor is mother duck. Everyone mills about the room. When mother duck calls out, “quack, quack, quack” then the ducklings hurry over to their mother and follow behind her in a straight line.

Hawk & Vulture – Have the children stand and bend over at the waist. To be a soaring hawk, they hold their arms straight out to the side. To be a circling vulture, they hold their arms up, in a “V” formation over their backs. Call out “hawk” and “vulture” as the children then bring their arms to the correct formation. Throw in a few tricks, “hawk, hawk, vulture, hawk, vulture, vulture, vulture.”

Hummingbird Flight – The children hold their bent arms close to their sides and flap their hands very fast. Hummingbirds can fly forward (step forward), backward (step backwards), up (stand on tippy toe), and down (bend knees). With the children flapping their “wings,” call out different directions to move. Can the children understand why hummingbirds each nectar (sugar) from the flowers for enough energy to move so fast?

Fox Walk – After the frantic hummingbird movements, have the children step in the perfect tracking pattern of red foxes. The children walk with heel touching the toe, moving in a straight line or as if they were on a tightrope.

Pigeon Bop – Have the children walk while bobbing their heads front to back with each step.

Deer Walk – You’ll need to do a bit of preparation for this one. Make a deer tail prop from a piece of brown and a piece of white felt or craft foam. Cut both into a wide tail shape, the white piece smaller than the brown. Glue together, leaving a pocket between the two pieces so you can slide your hand inside. Explain that white-tailed deer seem to have brown tails until they see some dancer and move to run way, at which point their tail flips up and the more obvious white is showing. This signals the deer to follow the deer that gave warning. Have the children mill about, pretending to be deer eating grass. When you flip up your tail, the other deer should get in line behind you.

Some of these games work well at gathering the children to you. Other games focus a burst of energy and get kids’ attention for a few moments. Once kids learn these silly movement games, you can use them in an instant, whether you are at home with one child or at school with a group.