To teach children how animals leave signs that other animals can understand, explain how animal tracks are all unique. Spread a long sheet of dark cloth on the floor and then have the children take off their shoes and dip their feet in a tray of baby powder. The kids will enjoy walking, running, jumping, and skipping down the sheet of dark cloth. After each child has had a turn, the children can take a look to see how each person's footprint, or "track" is different. Encourage them to figure out what type of movement each track indicates: running, jumping or other actions. If you are near a wilderness area where wild animals might leave tracks the children can find, take them out to look for tracks.
This game helps children learn to associate the sound an animal makes with the picture of that animal and the written name of the animal. To play the game, hand the kids cards with each card showing either the picture or the written name of an animal. You can use farm animals, jungle animals, forest animals, whatever you want, but make sure that you hand out both the picture card and the name card. Scatter the children around the room. Then have them make the noise of the animal represented on the card and find their counterpart.
Sometimes the sounds children make to represent an animal don't always sound quite the way the animal actually sounds. For instance, while the word "meow" is a fairly good onomatopoetic representation of the sound a cat makes, an actual cat doesn't have the ability to make the "m" sound in "meow." To help kids learn to recognize actual animal sounds, have them listen to recordings of animals communicating in nature, and then have them draw pictures of the animals they think they are hearing.
Not only can children learn how to identify animals by identifying their tracks, they can also learn a lot about the characteristics of those animals. Begin this activity by showing the kids pictures of animal tracks and helping them to identify which track goes with which animal. The children can also discuss what they can tell about animals from their tracks, including how big they are, how fast they're traveling, and other information. Then show children pictures of footprints from invented animals and let them figure out what the animal must be like, or have them draw their own tracks of invented animals.