Jungle Party Invitation Wording
Climb though vines and canopies
With monkeys
swinging through the trees
And leopards prowling down below
And sloths that move so very slow
Join our safari, hop on the bus
You’ll have fun with all of us!
Safari Jungle Party Decorations
Safari Party Outfits
You can have the kids dress up in 1 of 2 ways …
1. Explorers: (if they are able to wear brown/tan clothes everyone will look like a safari “team”) then you can supply the pith helmet and as a craft the children can make old fashioned paper bag vests.
2. Animals: make animal masks out of foam/construction paper, or make animal ears out of foam/paper attached to plastic headbands. Another way is to add paper ears to paper headbands that are stapled together (sized differently for each child …. add the child’s name on the inside.)
- It is easy to print out animal prints (zebra/tiger stripe/leopard spot pattern) and then cut them into triangles and make bunting which can be hung from green yarn/ribbon , (green ribbon makes wonderful curly “tendrils” if you run it over a scissor blade)
- Raid the beanie baby closet and use the stuffies as decoration (best to use what you have first)
- Make “Vines” from twisting brown paper (grocery bags or mailing package wrap), to the vines add “Leaves” made from posterboard/green construction paper/ tissue paper
- Round up all your tropical plants (or borrow some from friends) to add to the jungle ambiance
- Cut some excess greenery from the backyard and bring it inside for extra decoration
- Cut out animal prints from construction paper/posterboard and tape the prints going across the floor and ceiling (for the pawprints of those tree dwellers!)
Use lots of green crepe paper strung about in addition to those green paper leaves
- Hang tropical fruit (securely) from the ceiling! (bananas,mangos, even coconuts)
- You can make a fake waterfall from blue plastic/paper/blue garbage bags/long tinsel/beaded curtains
- Add signs around that say “Don’t Feed the Animals”, “Beware of Tigers”, “Welcome to the ____________ National Park”
- Play animal sounds in the background of the party
- Welcome them with a potion/pill (a pez or similar hard candy) to ward off the tropical diseases such as Malaria as they enter the party… put a scare into them as they enter the “jungle”. The more you can ham it up the better (young kids love it when you ham things up!)
- If you have some brown kraft large packing tubes you can make palm trees with them – add green paper fronds at the top
- Put up some mosquito netting
Jungle Safari Party Activities
- Make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls covered with black paper and hung from the neck with yarn
- Set up one wall with butcher paper or large newsprint (newspapers often sell leftover rolls very cheaply) and have all the kids paint a mural when they arrive (then it will double as an exotic decoration!)
- Hide jungle animals in the house/yard and have the children “hunt” them down
- Make Jungle animal Bingo cards
- Do up a Jungle Quiz about the animals (It is always fun to sneak in a little bit of educational content!)
- Do a Bean Bag Toss (Draw an animal with a large mouth on cardboard with a hole to toss the beanbag into)
- Play “Lazy Sloths”, by playing some Jungle Music/sounds (a fun one is “The Lion sleeps tonight”) and when the music stops the sloths have to stop drop and freeze. Last one to stop moving is out!
- Play monkey in the middle, or “Monkey see Monkey do” (Simon says)
- Play “Eenie Meenie Minie Mo… catch a Tiger by the Toe” (kids in a circle around a blindfolded “Explorer” who says the full rhyme and then points at the ill-fated Tiger
- Limbo is always fun (especially under a green vine)
- Have a Tarzan Yelling/Lion Roaring/Monkey chattering contest … winner for funniest , loudest, most realistic noises … (this one can be hard on the ears! )
- Hang Food items (perhaps slices of fruit) from the ceiling with yarn/twine and have the children eat them in a speed relay (no hands allowed)
- Have the children eat like the jungle animals (no hands at the table! … not for the faint of heart)
Set up a Jungle Obstacle Course: (Limbo under some vines, jump over pools of piranha, throw a hoop onto a rhino tusk/elephant nose (can be made simply from painted cardboard and a paper tube)
- Play Tug-o-War with one set being the “Rhinos” and the other “Elephants”
- Pin the Tail on the Zebra
- Peanut push from one side of the room to the other (using your elephant nose … a paper cup attached to the face with elastic)
Jungle Safari Party Food
- Serve “Snakes” (hot dogs) and “tropical fruit salad” (throw in some pineapple and banana).
- Serve frozen banana on a stick (dip them in chocolate “mud”)
- Serve ants on a log with juice punch (call it something fun like …. jungle juice, swamp water, bog water, etc)
- Don’t forget the “Animal Crackers” and “Banana Runts”!