Raccoon Walks Exercise for Kids {FREE Printable}

Do your kids like raccoons? Are you teaching about raccoons or using a Kissing Hand theme? This fun raccoon walks exercise goes with my raccoon walks dice printable, and is a great way to combine education and exercise!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

RACCOON WALKS EXERCISE FOR KIDS – YOUTUBE VIDEO

My 2¾-year-old niece, Zoey, demonstrates the raccoon walks exercise in this cute video! She was able to imitate how raccoons walk before she was even shown the raccoon walks exercise! {Note: For more raccoon activities and free printables, see Free Kissing Hand Songs, Poems, and Videos to Ease Separation Anxiety, Sweet Kissing Hand Craft with Handprint and Poem, Free Raccoon Printables and Montessori-Inspired Raccoon Activities {Kissing Hand Unit}, Free Raccoon Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download), and Free Raccoon Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)}.

Watch the Raccoon Walks Exercise for Kids YouTube video!

RACCOON WALKS EXERCISE

The raccoon walks exercise for kids is focused on full-body movement, posture, core strength, strength, coordination, control, and physical fitness.

When performing the raccoon walks exercise with kids, it’s important to keep these in mind:

Start with basic crawling to get the feeling of the movement and warm up the body. Reach and plant hands on the ground while crawling on the knees. This can be a simpler version of the exercise.
Help kids place the balls of their feet in front on the floor when kneeling. You can guide their toes and feet where they will go to help with their understanding of where the feet will go.
Add lifting knees off the ground and holding a plank position. Kids can hold a plank type position with either their legs straight or bent. Hands and toes should be on the ground and the rest of the body should be raised off the ground. This can be done on its own as a more advanced version than basic crawling on the knees.
Add raccoon walks moving (easier). First go into the plank position. Then begin by moving one arm forward and placing the hand on the ground followed by the other arm and hand. Then bring one foot forward followed by the other foot. It can be a fun activity to show kids a video of a raccoon walking and them have them try to imitate it to their best ability.
Add raccoon walks moving (harder). First go into the plank position. Then begin by moving one hand and one foot forward at the same time and planting them on the ground. Follow with bringing the other hand and foot forward at the same time. This is more difficult because extra strength and coordination is required to move one hand and foot at the same time in addition to balancing on only one hand and foot while moving.
Focus on fun and controlled range of motion. This exercise is meant to be fun and to have as large a range of motion as possible while maintaining control.
Remind kids about using good posture and engaging abdominals. Encourage kids to make their body long on the reaching part, draw their belly button into their spine, and keep good posture throughout the exercise. It can be tough to maintain good posture as they get tired, but good posture increases the effectiveness immensely. It will also help prevent injury.
Encourage kids to keep trying. As long as they are trying and moving, encourage them! This will help them gain confidence. Then you can begin to refine the movement as confidence increases.

PROGRESSIONS OF THE RACCOON WALKS EXERCISE FOR KIDS

When it’s apparent that your child is ready to progress to a more difficult version of the raccoon walks exercise, here are some progressions to try while performing the exercise:

Lower bottom toward the ground when in the plank or raccoon walk. The lower the bottom is to the ground until in line with the shoulders the more difficult the exercise.
Reach arms farther from body and do bigger raccoon walks.
Increase quickness.
Increase repetitions. For older kids and adults, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can be done with the dice to increase repetitions, focus on educational skills, and make the game more interesting.

HOW TO DO THE RACCOON WALKS DICE FITNESS GAME

First download the free Raccoon Walks Dice Printable below. Then print out and tape or glue together the dice printable or print out and put the dice printable inserts in the differentiated instruction cube/photo cube.

This fitness game can be done with one or more kids of all ages and adults. If two or more are playing this fitness game, you can alternate rolling the dice and doing the exercise individually, or you can alternate who rolls the dice and everyone playing can do the exercise each time.

My niece, Zoey, loves to alternate when doing the exercise {Auntie Chrissy (me), Grandma (my mom), and then Zoey}! She will also take out the dice and play it on her own if she’s at Grandma’s (my mom and dad’s) and I’m not there.

Figure out where you will do the dice fitness game.
Roll the dice.
Have the child count the number of dots on the dice that the dice has landed on.
Raccoon Walk that number of times. For example, if the dice landed on 5, you will raccoon walk 5 times.
Continue this game for a specific number of rounds, length of time, or other specified amount. You can also do this dice fitness game for the specified duration, followed by one or more of my other dice fitness games that you can find below.

If I’m with Zoey, she usually likes to do multiple dice fitness games together! We typically have four fitness dice available on her shelves at all times. We use the differentiated instruction cubes/photo cubes.

FREE RACCOON WALKS DICE PRINTABLE {FITNESS & COUNTING INSTANT DOWNLOAD}

You can get a free, instant download of my raccoon walks dice and Differentiated Instruction Cube (photo cube) printables!

SIMPLE AND FUN FROG LEAP ACTIVITY FOR KIDS {FREE PRINTABLE}

Check out my “Simple and Fun Frog Leap Activity for Kids” post for another fun fitness for kids printable plus ideas of activity trays you can easily prepare with these printables. Since she was 2 years old, my niece, Zoey, has brought the frog dice out often and does it on her own or will ask for a family member to do it with her. So adorable and an awesome way to get kids loving to move from an early age!