Trail Tales: Bush Animal Move Cards
Category: Games & Activities · 2-page printable PDF · Ages F-2, 3-4 · Free for ConnectedPE members
Trail Tales is a set of nine cut-out bush-animal movement cards for ages 5–9, each pairing a one-line story with a locomotor or balance move: Wombat Waddle, Kookaburra Lookout, Creek-Stone Hop, Log Balance, Echidna Curl, Snake Slither, Lyrebird Stomp, Possum Tiptoe and Eagle Glide. Every card carries an Easier and a Harder line, so a seated sway and a one-foot hop live on the same card.
Page 2 turns the cards into storytelling: students draw three (or one Story Starter plus two moves), put them in order, narrate first-then-finally, and act the sequence out while their group guesses the animals. Three Safety cards (Hat, Water, Sunscreen; Stay on the Track; Buddy Rule) double as the trail rule the group checks before starting, so bushwalking safety is rehearsed as movement rather than lectured.
Two pages, scissors only, playable seated or standing in a classroom corner or on the oval. Suits Foundation to Year 4 movement, outdoor education and oral language lessons. Pairs with Story Moves and Safari Circuit.
What students learn
Students perform and sequence locomotor and stability movements (waddling, hopping, heel-to-toe balance, tiptoeing, curling and unrolling, low crawling, gliding and copying a partner's pattern) by embodying nine Australian bush animals, choosing the easier or harder version that suits their body. They order three cards into a story with first, then and finally, narrate it aloud and act it out for peers to guess, building oral language, creative movement and audience awareness. Safety cards embed bushwalking habits (sun protection, staying on the track, the buddy rule) as practised actions, and the open storytelling format lets students take creative control of their own movement sequences.
Topics: animal moves, locomotor, balance, storytelling, oral language, outdoor education, bushwalking, safety, Australian animals, task cards, brain break, inclusive
Curriculum links
- AC9HPFM01
- AC9HP2M01
- AC9HP4M01
- AC9HPFM02
- AC9HP2M02
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- Across Country: The Traditional Games Trail — Ages 3-4, 5-6
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