Footprint Detectives
Reading footprints, today and long ago: three toes, two feet, round paws.
How it plays
Two footprints. Ruby Roo asks which animal made one, with a clue: three thin toes, round with five little toes, two long feet side by side. Your child taps one. A right tap says why; the other tap names the footprint and asks again. A dinosaur and a wombat first, then an emu and a kangaroo, then all four.
What it's for
Reading footprints, today and long ago: three toes, two feet, round paws. There is no score to lose and no way to fail: a wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's done.
Away from the screen: Footprint hunt
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Wet your feet (or your child's) and step on dry concrete or paper.
- Look at the shape: how many toes?
- Press a toy's foot into playdough or wet sand.
- Next time you're at the beach or the park, look for footprints in the sand or mud.
Three questions to ask while they play
- How many toes does that footprint have?
- Which animal has big feet?
- What would your footprint look like next to an emu's?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- Three thin toes. Who has three toes?
- That's a kangaroo's footprint, two long feet.
Taking turns on one device: One of you gives the clue; the other taps.
If they find it hard
Count the toes together on the screen before they choose. The clue Ruby Roo gives always says what to look for.
Every fact, and where it comes from
What Ruby Roo says in Footprint Detectives was checked against the page it links to.
- Most fossils form when a plant or animal dies in water and is buried in mud and silt; the soft parts rot away, the hard bones or shells are left, and over time the layers harden into rock. Bones, teeth, footprints and even droppings can be fossils. (Australian Museum)
- Footprints are fossils too: they record where an animal walked, not just what it looked like. (Australian Museum)
- Lark Quarry, in outback Queensland near Winton, has more than 3,300 dinosaur footprints in a fossilised rock face. They were long thought to be a stampede, about 95 million years ago; another idea is that a flock of small two-legged dinosaurs was crossing a river. (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service)
What it practises
- Looking and finding. For two- and three-year-olds: looking for something hidden, and knowing it's still there when you can only see a bit of it.
EYLF 4.2 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0) - Australian animals. What animals look like and where they live (My animal friends cards).
AC9SFU01 (Science, Foundation); AC9S1U01 (Science, Year 1)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Footprint Detectives is part of Fossil Finders. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated