Toddlers always go ga-ga over animals. My 2 year old makes such a cute wolf howl.. aaaooowww..
So it wont be a waste to organise a jungle safari themed birthday.
The decor must be to recreate to jungle along with the music. If it is not possible to do it yourself, there are many party planners who can do it for you at a price.
1. Use black, brown and green balloons
2. Draw animal footprints on floor with poster paints
3. Make large zebra or giraffe cutouts for decor
4. Make large green bushes or tree cut outs
5. Give each kid a small binocular and a plastic safari hat
6. Each adult host should wear khaki pants or shorts and wear a name tag that says “safari guide”
You may also want to call an entertainer with puppets or a story teller who can enact a good animal story. Kids love that. An animal tatoo station would also be a nice addition
The games
1. Colour animal mask. Each kid will colour a pre- printed animal mask
2. You may rent an animal themed bouncy house although they are costly
3. Animal hunt – hide small plastic animals around and let kids find them. Give them clues in the form of footprints or things they eat. For eg. Elephants eat peanuts and monkeys eat banana
4. Animal voice – play animal voices on phone and let the kids guess the animal
5. Elephant, elephant, giraffe – This is just another name for the age old game kokla-chi-paki-chi. Kids sit in a circle and the birthday boy starts by walking around outside the circle, tapping each kid on head and saying elephant. When he says giraffe, the tapped kid has to run and catch the tapper. And the game continues.
The party menu should be simple and mostly finger food for the little ones.
For example, potato wedges (click for recipe), noodles and vegetable cutlets.
Safari themes party can have a cake in variety of forms. Jungle, lion or any favourite animal of the birthday kid.
As a return gift, a small stuffed toy animal or animal printed merchandise would be good idea.
I loved this theme. Although a little hard work is there but it will be worth it. Remember to arrange for a puppeteer or a story teller or just tell a dramatic story yourself.
Have fun!!