Why do OTs love animal walks?

Fun!
Engages a child's imagination!
Physical movement!
Core strength and gross motor skill development!
Sensory motor input to the muscles and joints!
Regulatory benefits!

No prep! 

Every therapist, teacher and parents should have "animal walks" in their toolkit to use with individual children and groups (even classes). 

There are so many benefits to participating in animal walks and some of them are harder than they seem. Add a timer (such as a visual classroom timer) or roll a die (dice) to determine how long to do each movement.  You can determine how many different animal walks to do each time. 

Animal walks are so important that I am giving you a FREE printable to use them in as part of your repertoire of activities. You can print out the visual prompts, cut and laminate them to use in a number of ways.  More on how you can recieve this free printable later in this article. 

Firstly here are 10 ways you can include animal walks into your routine. .

1.  Warm up or alerting activity.  
Choose an animal walk to start a session, or as a brain break in the classroom.  

2. Hallway or transition activity. 
Choose an animal walk to move from one room to another.  Do this individually or as a group. 

At home, you could incorporate animal walks from one part of the house to another (eg. let's bear walk from your bedroom to the kitchen). 

3. Follow the leader. 
Have a child choose an animal walk and the rest of the group follow behind. This is a great activity to do within a classroom in and around tables and chairs. 

4. Make an animal walk plan (for executive functioning skills). 
Have a child choose a few (I start with three) animal walks to make a plan.  Place these in a sequence and then carry out the sequence.  The child can keep track of what they are up to by checking (ticking off) the walks they have done.  

By creating a plan, sequencing and carrying out the plan -  your child is developing executive functioning skills with a motivating task.  This process can be carried over to help them to break down larger tasks that may seem more overwhelming (eg. getting ready in the morning).  Read more about executive functioning skills HERE and HERE. 

5. Obstacle course or circuit.
Position the animal walk prompts strategically around a room (or playground).  Have your child start with one animal walk towards the next and so forth until they complete the circuit. This is a great activity to do when inside sport is needed in a hall or gym. 

6. Relay race. 
Divide your group into teams. Position them for a relay race (could be back and forth in the same area).  Determine the sequence of animal walks. This is also a great activity for inside wet weather sport days. 

Have the first person to do the first animal walk toward the next person in their team. Have the next person do the second animal walk and so forth. 

7. Active listening in the classroom. 
When your students know the animal walks well, you can call out an animal for a "drop and do" action at any time during the day.  You could determine the time for this (eg. 1 minute).  Even a 10 second movement activity will help with alertness and engage participation.  To add another twist, call out "zoo" for the children to determine the animal themselves. 

8. Add props!
While animal walks can be done without any props and any preparation, you could also consider adding a few things to create more interest over time. 
a) Obstacles such as hoola hoops, cones or even furniture could be used to guide a route. 
b) Motor planning props such as an agility ladder and sensory tiles could be used to help with spatial awareness. 
c) Bean bags or weighted products could be transported from one place to another with an animal walk. 
d) Dress up items such as a hat, scarf or face masks could be used to develop animal characters. 

9) Themes!
Use each animal as a separate theme for further activities in therapy sessions, the classroom or at home.  You could add a craft, read a book, create a writing activity, make a puppet, draw a picture or more! 

Here are some animal themed products and activities that you could use!
* 10 week animal themed preschool program.
* Scissors skills zoo
* Guess my answer writing pages (the first one is animal).
* Frog activites

10) Practice fast, slow and stop (impulse control and regulation)! 
Faster speeds will be more alerting and slower speeds will help to calm the body. Some children need the faster speeds to help with regulation too.  These movements connect the body with the brain (as they need to think about what they are doing). 
a) Have your children listen to the speed they should perform their animal walk as you call out- fast, slow or stop. 
b) Use a metronome to listen to the speed and vary this up or slow down.  
c) You could play musical animals where the children perform an animal walk while the music is playing and freeze when the music stops. 

Animals walks are a great example of a "people game".  Doing these animal walks alongside, together, collaboratively - you are building connection with your child.  Can you do the animal walk towards each other?  Can you do it without laughing? Can you do them with a silly sound?  Can you make it a guessing game with younger children?  Can you challenge your children to think of more animal walks (eg. How does an axolotl move?)?  For more examples of "people games"  and a reminder that your child's best toy is you (READ THIS). 
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Receive this free ANIMAL WALK PRINTABLE as an email subscriber to Your Kids OT. Don't worry, if you are already a subscriber, you will only be listed once.  Fill in the form below to receive your copy!  

I hope that you keep "animal walks" in your regular repertoire and incorporate some variations that I've shared above! Send your friends, clients and colleagues here to receive their own copy of animals walks. 

Animal Walks FREE PRINTABLE

Until next time, 

Cindy is a registered occupational therapist practising in Sydney, Australia.  She has two growing children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. She is also addicted to making printables (even when they take a long time to complete).  Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.  Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog

Cindy is a contributing author of the Functional Skills for Kids Therapy Team.  They have together published THE HANDWRITING BOOK, THE SCISSORS SKILLS BOOK and THE TOILETING BOOK.

​The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions. Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote recommended products. Your Kids OT receives a small commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. ​​​
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