Animal Walks for Kids To Explore the Amazing Nature!

As a mother, I understand that sometimes, getting our kids to sit in one place at home without becoming bored and restless can be difficult. 

I would say that imitating animal 🦒 walks is a fun exercise to keep your kids busy and entertained. I guarantee they will have so much fun doing so.

If you are looking for more information on animal walks, you are at the right place 💯 – I would love to share more on this to help you better!

Animal Walks for Kids

These animal walk activities are fun for kids, and they can imitate the different ways in which various animals walk by watching visual 📺 mediums of the animals in their natural habitats for reference or by using their imagination 💭. 

Copying movements from the animal kingdom helps improve their gross motor skills, regulate their senses, and allow them to be active and get their bodies moving.

You can make your kids copy animal walks just for fun or include them as part of obstacle courses, outdoor games, or warm-up and preparatory activities. 

In this blog post, I have included various animal walks and how to do them for your kids to try that will keep them excited and engaged. 😁

Waddle like a Penguin

My son loves watching penguins 🐧 walking in their snowy, ice-cold habitats. 

You can get your kids to copy the waddling-like movements of the adorable penguins.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids keep their hands straight by their sides, bend their knees, and walk with short steps or hops. 
• Additionally, they can use their heels to waddle as the penguins do.

You can also place a small ball between your kids’ legs to recreate the penguin’s waddling movements. 

This animal walk helps kids improve their balance and strengthen their calves.

Pro Tip:

I sometimes place a small ball or soft toy 🧸 on my son’s feet as the ‘penguin egg.’ Then, I challenge my son to waddle like a penguin holding its egg – and walk without dropping the ‘egg’ off his feet by balancing it properly.

Jump like a Kangaroo

Watching kangaroos 🦘 jump is always fascinating for kids, and I guarantee they will enjoy copying the jumps.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids start in a standing position with both their feet together. 
• Instruct them to squat a little and jump forward as high as possible, using their feet to take steps copying the kangaroos. 

You can also give your kids a soft toy to hold in front of them to resemble the kangaroos with their offspring in their pouches.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their core and legs and provides sensory input to the body in the form of joint compression.

Hop like a Flamingo 

My son has always been fascinated with these beautiful pink-feathered birds, and he had so much fun copying the movements of a flamingo 🦩.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids stand on one of their feet and try to jump with small hops using only one leg. 
• As they hop with small steps, get them to switch the leg they stand on after a while.
• The key to hopping like a flamingo is for kids to maintain their balance while standing on just one leg.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their core and legs and straighten and align their posture.

Walk like a Bear

Bears 🐻 are adorable and fascinating animals that most kids love from the children’s stories 📖 they read and listen to. 

My son has developed a fondness for bears from the countless bear-themed stories I have narrated to him over time.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids start in a standing position with their feet shoulder-width apart and arms straight. 
• Then, get them to place their hands on the floor with their backs parallel to the ground. 
• Instruct them to keep their arms straight and slightly bend their knees. 
• Let your kids try to take steps by moving their arms and legs in this bent position to resemble the walk of the mighty grizzly bear. 

This animal walk helps kids strengthen the muscles in the whole body, the core and makes the hamstring flexible.

Pro Tip:

They can place their right hand and left foot forward, followed by their left hand and right foot – alternating between both sides to walk like a bear.

Walk like a Polar Bear

You can get your kids to mimic the movements of a polar bear 🐻‍❄️ living in its cold habitat and walking with slow and small steps.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids follow the same steps as the bear walk, but the only difference is that for the polar bear walk, they can stand with their feet wider apart than the shoulder-width distance. 
• Your kids can place their hands flat on the floor with their backs parallel to the ground. 
• Then, get them to move their arms and legs slowly in the bent position. 
• Instruct them to keep their arms straight and bend their knees to walk like a polar bear.

This animal walk helps kids improve their balance and strengthens the core and legs.

Hop like a Bunny

If your kids love bunnies, as my son does, then I’m sure they will love hopping around like adorable bunnies 🐰 looking for some carrots 🥕 to munch on.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids stand with their feet together and hands held forward, palms facing toward the body, and pointing downwards.
• Then, for the fun part of the activity – your kids can take steps forward as they hop with both legs simultaneously and swing their hands for balance like a bunny.

This animal walk helps kids improve coordination and the strength of their legs.

Pro Tip:

I made my son a handmade bunny-themed crown 👑 to wear as he hopped around like an energetic bunny.

Jump like a Starfish

Starfish ⭐️🐠, also known as sea stars, are fascinating creatures in the shape of a star. My son loves spotting them in ocean-themed documentaries he watches.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids start in a standing position.
• Then, get them to jump as high as possible with their arms and legs stretched outward to resemble a starfish position. 
• They can land back in the starting position again.
• Jumping like a starfish is similar to doing jumping jacks but with the arms and legs spread wide. 

This animal walk helps kids develop their coordination, strengthen their legs, shoulders, and core, and allow for sensory input.

Stomp like an Elephant 

“When the elephants walk, the forest walks with them.” – Sudha Ramen.

My son has loved elephants 🐘 ever since we went on a safari and watched the Earth’s most magnificent animals wandering in their habitat.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids stand in the starting position and bend their backs forward, parallel to the ground.
• Instruct them to hang their hands from the shoulders and move them back and forth like the trunk of an elephant.
• They can then lift their knees as high as possible and move, stomping forward.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their backs and arms.

Pro Tip:

You can get your kids to stomp their legs a little harder with their shoes on to create the sounds of the elephants walking.

Waddle like a Duck

I would say that the duck 🦆 walk is one of the classic types of animal walks and is used in many exercise routines. So, your kids might be familiar with this particular animal walk.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids sit down on the floor in a squatted position. 
• They can try to walk, alternating the steps between the legs while sitting in the same position.

This animal walk helps kids to make their hips, knees, and arms flexible and strengthens their core and lower body.

Scuttle like a Crab

My son loves watching the countless crabs 🦀 that scuttle on the beaches while he builds his sandcastles.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids sit with their feet flat on the floor and place their hands behind their bodies, with their fingers pointing backward.
• They should resemble a ‘table top.’
• Now, guide them to lift their whole body off the floor, balancing their weight on their hands and feet, and move around to scuttle like a crab.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their core and muscles, and improves coordination.

Pro Tip:

If your kids find it too difficult to lift their entire body, you can let them lift only their bottoms up in the air to make it more comfortable. 

Jump like a Frog

I recommend getting your kids to copy the frogs 🐸 that jump in your garden.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids squat on the floor and place both hands between their knees.
• You can guide them to jump forward using their legs and land with their hands and feet touching the floor.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen and mobilize their legs, strengthen the core, and provide sensory input to the body.

Swim like a Whale

My son loves watching documentaries on blue whales 🐳 that swim in the vast blue oceans, and he enjoyed moving like a whale.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids lay on the floor on their stomachs. 
• Then, get them to stretch their arms straight forward and wiggle their hips back and forth to copy the way whales swim.

This animal walk helps kids develop their core strength.

Slither like a Snake

Your kids might be afraid of snakes 🐍, but I’m sure they will enjoy moving around like a snake. 

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids lie on the floor on their stomachs. 
• Then, instruct them to stretch their hands forward with their palms resting on the floor. 
• They can lift the upper part of their body above the floor with their arms still stretched and wiggle from one side to another, slithering like a snake.

This animal walk helps make the spine more flexible and strengthens the back muscles of your kids.

Walk like a Gorilla

Let your kids copy the walk of the gorilla 🦍, which is the largest of the great apes, and has human-like hands.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids sit squatted on the floor and place their hands folded in fists between the knees. 
• Then, get your kids to take small steps forward while staying in that position, slowly moving their fisted hands and legs.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their core and legs, provides sensory input, and promotes flexibility. 

Crawl like a Turtle 

Your kids can try to mimic the slow and steady movements of the turtle 🐢.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids kneel on the floor with their bodies resting on the heels, both arms and elbows placed on the ground in front. 
• Let your kids extend one arm and one leg simultaneously to move forward like a turtle.

This animal walk helps kids develop their coordination abilities and strengthens their core, arms, and legs.

Prowl like a Tiger

If your kids love tigers 🐅, you can get them to prowl around like the big cat with its striking orange and black form.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids place their palms and feet on the floor.
• Then, let them crouch as low as possible.
• They can take slow steps forward to copy the prowl of a tiger on a hunt for its prey.

This animal walk helps kids improve core strength and makes the upper body more flexible.

Gallop like a Horse

Horses 🐎 are one of my son’s favorite animals, and he truly had fun galloping like the horses he saw on our farm visits. 

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids stand with both their feet close to each other.
• Then, get them to move one leg forward, and they can kick the other leg forward to almost touch the other, to gallop like a horse.
• Instruct them to repeat the same pattern by alternating the legs while moving forward.
• The key to galloping like a horse requires kids to coordinate their leg movements as they move forward.

This animal walk helps kids improve their balance, develop their coordination, and strengthen their arms and legs.

Crawl like an Inchworm

Watching an inchworm 🪱 crawl is so much fun as it moves quickly and steadily.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids bend their bodies over and rest their hands and feet on the floor like a plank position.
• Then, instruct them to move their arms away, a few steps forward, while the legs are stationary.
• They can bring their legs a few steps forward and closer to their arms to come back to the original plank position.
• Your kids can repeat the same steps of moving the arms followed by the legs to crawl like the inchworm.

This animal walk helps kids improve their core, arms, and leg strength, develops balance, and provides sensory input – joint compression.

Kick like a Donkey

Donkey 🫏 kicks are a fun animal action that kids can try to copy. My son would say that is a cool move to practice. 

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids start with a standing position, bend over, and place their hands and feet on the floor.
• Guide your kids to hold their grip firmly, jump with their legs, and kick behind them like a donkey does with its legs.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen their arms, shoulders, and hamstrings and promotes balance.

Pro Tip:

Your kids can start by kicking one leg at a time and then move on to kicking both legs together at the same time.

Slide like a Seal

Seals 🦭 are aquatic mammals that are known for their fun antics, curious and playful by nature, much like dolphins. They slide around from land to water, and are a fun animal walk for kids to replicate.

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids lie down on the floor on their stomachs.
• Then, get them to push their hands up until they are straight.
• They can move across the floor while dragging their legs behind.

This animal walk helps kids develop their arm and core strength and improve their ability to balance. 

Pro Tip:

Seal walks can be a bit tricky for your kids to copy due to the nature of the movements. So, I recommend you modify the exercise to make kids move on their forearms and use the knees to give a bit more push.

Walk like a Giraffe

My son loves watching giraffes 🦒, the tallest animals on Earth with long necks and patches covering their bodies. 

Steps to Do:

• Make your kids stand on their tip-toes to recreate the height of the giraffes.  
• They can lift their arms toward the ceiling, straight above their heads, to form the neck and walk around the room on tip-toes. 
• Kids can also raise one arm up for the neck and lower the arm to make the tail of the giraffes.

This animal walk helps kids strengthen the arches of their legs along with their knees, ankles, and toes of the feet.

Benefits of Animal Walks

Animal walks are not only a source of entertainment and play for kids but also offer a lot of benefits that can positively help kids in their growth and development while allowing them to enjoy themselves.

I have listed some of the benefits of doing animal walks below –

Promotes Fitness

As animal walks involve physical movements and actions, they can help kids become fit individuals and improve their overall health. 

You can treat animal walks like daily exercises as they allow your kids to move around and do various kinds of stretches. 

My son became healthier and more active after doing animal walks, which can also be treated as an exercise. 

Improves Mental Well-Being

As you know, animal walks are physical in nature – and these walks let kids move their bodies by crawling, jumping, hopping, and so on, which also benefits their minds 🧠.

Doing physical activities is linked to improved mental well-being of our children because it impacts mental health, emotional states, and self-regulation.

I found that as my son did these animal walk activities, he felt calmer and improved his overall mood.

Improves Flexibility

Copying the movements of various animals involves a lot of stretching 🤸🏽‍♀️of the arms, legs, and the body in general.

I would say that this helps kids improve their flexibility as they crawl, jump, crouch, squat, bend, and so on. Improved flexibility also helps kids develop their balance, improve their endurance, and correct their posture.

I found that my son became more flexible and was able to stretch his body much better after doing these animal walks.

Encourages Creativity and Imagination

I would say that getting your kids to try various animal walks encourages them to use their imagination 💭 and engage in creative play.

Your kids can express themselves creatively by imitating the movements of animals in their own ways, using their imagination. 

Aids Emotional and Social Development 

Animal walk activities allow kids to develop their emotional 🧠 and social 🗣️ skills while having a good time. 

I believe that through this activity, we can encourage our kids to freely express themselves and display their capabilities in a fun environment. 

It also helped my son boost his confidence and made him more socially comfortable.

Develops Gross Motor Skills

As a mother, I understand that gross motor skills are essential for our kids’ overall physical development, and performing animal walk activities can help them. 

Gross motor skills require your kids to move🚶🏽‍♀️their whole body and are physical in nature. 

These skills can help kids improve their balance, flexibility, and strength, which helps in physical movements like running, jumping, and climbing, which involve large muscles of their bodies.

Improves Core Strength 

Animal walk activities can help improve the core strength of our kids.

I would say that many of the animal walk activities provide kids with opportunities to develop their core strengths. 

Many of these animal movements focus on the core part of the body and thus strengthen and activate the core muscles of kids.

Improves Muscle Strength

Animal walk activities are also a great way to improve the muscle strength of our kids.

Many of the animal walk activities are done in such a way that various muscles 💪🏼 of the body are strengthened – like the arms, legs, back, and shoulders.

Develops Coordination

Mimicking the movements of animals helps our kids develop their coordination abilities. 

These activities involve a lot of physical actions, and kids will learn to control their body movements as they perform various animal walks. 

Kids will also learn to establish coordination between their arms 💪🏼 and legs 🦵🏼as they mimic certain animal walks that require the same.

Improves Spatial Awareness

Animal walk activities are an effective method for kids to improve their spatial awareness abilities. 

As our kids jump, crawl, hop, and skip, they learn to become aware of their body movements with regard to their surroundings.

Provides Sensory Inputs

As your kids perform these animal walks, they experience a lot of sensory inputs and compressions in their joints and muscles. 

I would say that animal walks promote sensory regulation and allow kids to feel a sense of calm. 

The proprioceptive and vestibular inputs help our kids understand their position regarding the space they occupy – body awareness and improve their balance.

Variations of Animal Walks

I recommend you make your kids try variations of animal walks by choosing a level and making it either easy or difficult for them to make the activity more fun and exciting for them to do.

Easy Variation

There are two ways to make the activity much simpler –

You can make your kids do simple versions of animal walks that they are already familiar with, such as jumping like a frog, walking like a duck, stomping like an elephant, waddling like a penguin, and so on.

You can make the distance they have to cover while they do the animal walks short.

Difficult Variation

There are two ways to make the activity more difficult –

You can make your kids do complex versions of animal walks that are a bit trickier, such as kicking like a donkey, walking like a bear, moving like an inchworm, and so on.

You can make the distance they have to cover while they do the animal walks long.

Tips to Remember

I would like to share some tips to make the overall experience of the activity more exciting and make the animal walks more fun –

• You can let your kids watch YouTube videos, wildlife documentaries 📹, and wildlife-related shows as a reference point to mimic animal movements and allow them to learn new things about the various animals.
• You can make your kids imitate animal sounds 📣 along with the various animal walks to make it more fun.
• You can give your kids directions 🗺️ and paths to follow around the house while doing the animal walks.
• You can also make it more competitive with animal races 🚩 – by getting your kids to race each other from one point to another while doing the animal walks or include a timer ⏱️ they can try and beat.
• You can make your kids wear props 🧣or outfits 👚 in colors to match various animals whose movements they copy. I know that this requires a bit of advanced planning for parents, but this is definitely worth the effort.
• You can play animal-themed games 👾 by including the animal walks. An example – A popular game in my household – I made a stack of cards with pictures of animals, and my son mimicked the animal walk of the card I randomly showed him.
• You can engage your kids with pretend play 🎭 and storytelling activities by incorporating animal walks with imaginative play.
• You can conduct a timed cardio session, where your kids can perform the animal walks one after the other with rests in between. Set the timer for 25-30 seconds for each set or based on what your kids are comfortable with.

Precautions to Take

As these animal walks are physical in nature, I believe that it is essential to take a few precautions to ensure the safety ⛑️ of our kids.

I would like to list some general precautions for you to consider for kids –

• You can make your kids complete a set of low-intensity, simple warm-up exercises 🏃🏽‍♀️ to prepare their body – the joints and the muscles for the animal walks to avoid any possible strains or muscle pulls. 
• I suggest you pay close attention 👀 to your kids and their ability to do the animal walks without much difficulty and bodily strain. 
• It is best to choose animal movements depending on your kids’ ages #️⃣ and their level of flexibility and skills.
• Ensure you supervise young kids to check if they are performing the animal movements and actions properly and safely.
• As always drinking adequate water 💦 is essential for any kind of physical exercise for kids to avoid dehydration and falling sick. 

I always ensure that my son is well hydrated before he starts doing the animal walks, between the animal walk sets, and after completing the animal walk exercises.

Conclusion 

These animal 🦕 walk activities offer many benefits for kids, like developing their gross motor skills, their core and muscle strength, improving their physical and mental health, and allowing them to use their imagination to interpret the movements of animals.

My son had so much fun 🤩 doing these animal walks I listed above, and he had a great time, much to my delight! I guarantee your kids will have a great time and also learn about various animals.

I hope you enjoyed reading the above article 📑 about various animal walks and found some ideas for your kids to mimic as a fun and exciting activity. 

Please let me know in the comments if you have any more animal walk ideas to share or any questions for me to answer – I would love to hear from you! 😊