Pitter Patter

Objective: Students will learn to observe animals by studying their tracks and will understand how animals can be grouped according to the way they move.

Grade Level: 1-5

Group Size: entire class

Materials: Homemade track pattern cards; index cards showing various animal footprints; string; rolls of paper or window shades, field identification guidebooks depicting track patterns for native species (call 1-800-WILDLIFE for a free class set of mammal guides or find tracks in the Species A to Z Guide)

Time Allotment: 20 minutes

Directions

1. Pitter Patter is the key activity to a unit on tracking. Show the class your homemade track detective cards or a tracking field guidebook and explain that you went to a special animal tracking school where you learned to be a track detective. Ask the students if they would like to become track detectives too. Tell them you can initiate new track detectives if they can discover and learn the secret tracking formula.
    
2. Gather the class around you. Explain that the secret tracking formula will help them focus on important tracking clues in different habitats like woods and fields. Explain that the formula is top secret, so it necessary to whisper.
    
3. Caution the students to listen carefully as you will be giving important clues to the formula. Give the following clues slowly and see whether the students can guess the three words in the secret formula. Pause to let them fill in the italicized word.  The tracking formula consists of three words that all begin with the letter P. The first clue students should look for when tracking is the animals’ footprint. Once they discover a footprint they need to determine the design that footprints make in the snow. This design keeps repeating itself and is called a track pattern. The last thing they need to discover in tracking is where the animal lives or if it has a secret hiding place.
    
4. Have the students repeat the secret formula: pattern, print, place. Explain that it is important to use this formula to identify and study animals when they’re outdoors tracking. When they find a trail, they must first identify a track pattern. This can help narrow down the possible animals that might have made the track. Next, look for a good, clear, detailed footprint. This is one of the best tracking clues but is often difficult to find. Last, students should be sure to notice the place where the tracks are found. They should try to determine the direction of the tracks and why. These places give the last important clue to the animal’s identity.
    
5. Explain to the students that animals walk in four basic track patterns. You will teach the class to recognize these patterns. They will need to learn these before they go outside tracking. Make the track pattern cards from twelve 3”x5” index cards. Draw a single large oval on eight of the cards, and then cut four cards in half and draw single small circles on them, giving you a total of 16 track pattern cards. You will use these cards to demonstrate the four track patterns.
    
6. Begin with the straight-walking pattern. Place six cards on the floor in the correct pattern. With older students you may want to lay just a few cards on the floor and allow the students to finish the pattern. Ask for a volunteer to try and walk in this pattern with feet on the first two prints, and hands on the next two. To walk in this pattern, the students will have to move their right hand and left foot at the same time (and likewise their left hand and right foot). As their hand moves forward, their foot goes onto the cards where their hand was. Show the students the footprints of all the animals that walk in this pattern and have them guess who they are. Use a roll of paper or a white window shade stamped with various animal footprints in rows.
    

   Straight-walking pattern (Coyote)

   
    
7. Give all students a chance to imitate this pattern. Have them imagine they are one of the straight-walkers and let them practice walking around the room in the straight-walker pattern.
    
8. Using the track pattern cards, lay out the hopping pattern on the floor. Ask the students what animal might move in this pattern. Explain that hoppers have one pair of feet that is larger than the other pair. Can they guess which tracks are made by the front feet and which by the rear? Which way is the animal headed? Point out the hopper’s pattern is interesting because the larger hind feet land in the front of the smaller front feet. Ask the students how an animal might do this. Have a volunteer demonstrate. On all fours, the volunteer hopper places the hands between the widespread legs. Moving, the arms swing ahead first to take the body’s weight. The back feet follow, swinging around to the outside of the hands and landing slightly forward of them. Again, show the class footprints of other hoppers and let the students hop around like one of these animals.
     

   Hopping pattern (Squirrel)

   
    
9. Next, lay out the waddler pattern. This is one of the more difficult patterns to imitate. See whether the class can figure out the waddler’s method of walking from its track pattern. Ask for a volunteer waddler. The waddler’s weight shifts to the right as both the left hand and foot move forward at the same time, then shifts to the left as the right hand and foot move in their turn. When done slowly and with some exaggeration, waddling can give a clear impression of an animal slowly lumbering along. Show the class footprints of waddlers. Explain that they are usually slow moving animals that don’t need speed because they have other means of defense (e.g. the skunk has its smell, the porcupine its quills, the bear its size, and the raccoon its sharp teeth). Have the class slowly waddle about, pretending they are one of the waddlers.  
    

   Waddling pattern (Racoon)

   
    
10. Lay out the last track pattern, that of the bounders. These tracks are seldom seen in urban or suburban areas, so you may decide to omit this pattern. Explain that all members of the weasel family except the skunk are bounders. These animals have long, narrow bodies and very short legs. Moving, they look like s spring or Slinky. Have a volunteer bounder place his or her hands and feet together in one spot, then leap or bound forward so that all fours land together. Show the class a typical weasel footprint. Explain that in order to identify tracks of the several different members of the weasel family, one would need to look closely at the size of the print and the place it was found. Let the students bound around like weasels.
     

    Bounding pattern (Mink)

    
     
11. Review the four track patterns briefly. Pass out copies of track pattern cards to your students. Have them protect the cards for outdoor use by covering them with contact paper, laminating them or simply placing them in a plastic baggie. Punch two holes in the top and add string so it can be worn around the neck. Then take the class outside in search of real animal tracks. Have them use their track pattern card to help them identify tracks they find.

Extensions

• While outdoors, use a ruler to measure tracks. When you find an animal’s trail, measure the stride (the distance between two tracks). Some trackers also measure the distance between the first and third track because it tells you its approximate overall length. Also measure the straddle (the distance across the tracks, from the outside of the first to the outside of the second). This measurement can tell you how wide the animal is. Use a field guide to compare these measurements with the animal’s true dimensions.
   
• Make your own tracks in the snow. Compare walking and running tracks. Measure the stride. What happens to the distance between the footprints when you start to run? Have the students create their own track patterns while others try to guess how they were made.
   
• Play track charades. Have the students act out stories about different animals. Remind them to try and move in the track patterns appropriate for their animals. Use the following stories or have the student make up their own. Example: “You are an owl. Swoop down to catch a mouse, leaving your wing prints in the snow.”
   

 Return to Parents&Educators Menu