Start off by creating a dressing up competition for the host and their companions, asking all attendees to dress up as their favourite jungle animal! This will inspire lots of exciting planning, and all of the companions will have so much fun deciding which jungle animal costume to wear.
Remember to give the child's friends plenty of time to plan their costume, and the mums and dads will have time to help! There are lots of ways to dress up as Jungle animals, and whether you are the host of the party or a friend, these following tips will help you create the best Jungle costume ever!
How to dress up like a grrrrrrreedy tiger!
Tiger costumes are really impressive and are so easy to make! There's lots of different accessories and materials you can use, and as long as the colour theme doesn't stray from orange and black, you can't go wrong! Feather boas are easy to find in costume shops or you can even make you own by sticking lots of orange and black feathers onto a thick piece of string with costume glue. Your little tiger can wrap this around their neck like a scarf, and they've instantly got a fluffy chest just like a real tiger.
Making tiger ears is also wonderfully simple and looks grrrrrreat!
What You Need
- A plastic/fabric headband
- Black felt
- Orange felt
- Small sheet of corregated card
- Costume glue
Steps
1. First of all, draw a large diamond shape on the corregated card and cut this out.
2. Use this diamond shape as a template to cut out another diamond - now you have two identical diamonds.
2. Glue your orange felt onto the front and back of the diamond shapes.
3. Next, place one of the diamonds underneath the headband and position to the left (this will create the left ear!)
4. Fold up both sides of the diamond shape to meet each other at the top, so the headband is fully enclosed.
5. Now glue in place and repeat for the second ear!
6. Once all glue is dry, you can add extra decorations onto the new tiger ears if you wish! For extraaaaa tiger likeness, you can cut the black felt into strips and stick this onto the ears in various places to create stripes.
Finally, your youngster can try on their new ears!
One of the easiest ways to dress up is to have fun with face paints. A tiger is a particularly easy animal to try! - Get some orange, white and black face paints with a sponge and small paint brush. Simply blot the little one's face with the orange paint using the sponge, being careful of the eyes, nostrils and mouth. Next, use the paint brush to create thin black stripes in curved motions facing outwards. Then, use the sponge to blend white into the cheeks and the middle of the forehead. Finally, create a little black spot on the end of their nose. Now, the little one will look like a wildly ferocious tiger!
For expert face painting tips and a guide on how to transform your little one into an impressive tiger as pictured above, see facepaintingtips.com/blog!
How to dress up like an elephant!
All you need is some grey face paint, cardboard tissue tubes, a piece of string, grey paint and some glue! Dressing up as an elephant is so simple but very effective.
Blot some grey facepaint all over the youngster's face, again being careful of the eyes. Adding some little wrinkles will look even more realistic!
Next, your little elephant-to-be can get messy with the grey paint and cover all five small cardboard toilet roll tubes. Once they're dry, use a hole-punch to make holes at the end of each tube on either side, and then tie the tubes together using the string. For the final step, thread an elastic band through the end of the tube and this will hold the trunk in place over the little one's nose. If your mini-elephant is still feeling creative, they can create wrinkles and details on the trunk by using darker grey or black paint.
Now you have a perfect elephant's trunk that can be easily taken on and off during the party!
Whichever animal the little one wishes to be, some colour-themed clothes, face paints and themed accessories will work perfectly.
This creates the perfect opportunity to turn this dressing-up adventure into a competition, and the most original/creative Jungle animal can win!
Jungle Themed Party Games!
An animal themed party opens up lots of opportunity for exciting childrens party games! Kids love party games, so as long as there's a few activities to keep them occupied, they'll have a 'whale' of a time!
The fun can begin as soon as they arrive to the party; the kids can have a fun Jungle parade by taking in turns to pose in their Jungle costumes, while mummy or daddy take photos. These photos can then be given to the children at the end of the party to take home. As a fun activity, the kids can all sit down together and create their very own picture frame to put their new photos in.
They'll love being creative with paints and pencils, and it'll be so exciting to create the frames to suit their favourite Jungle animal theme. The frames can be something that are prepared for the kids before the party, so all they need to do is design them with animal decoration! Party games for children don't always have to involve passing a parcel or pinning a tail on the donkey - getting creative with arts and crafts gives the little ones scope to have fun with their arty skills, and it can keep them occupied for hours.
From tiger themes to jungle creepy crawly themes, they can use lots of bright colouring pens, with some extra accessories to make it extra special! Some glitter, glue and some colourful pipe cleaners will make lots of fun stripey designs for their frames! This is a great chance for the kids to get really creative and explore their animal sides!
We love these arty-crafty jungle animals above - pop over to Early Learning HQ to find even more arty ideas to try.
A fun game to really get their animal characters in action is a 'Jungle Show'. This is a great chance for the children to perform in their animal costumes! Let the kids get into groups of 3 or 4, and then ask them to create a performance to show the others, based on their animal characters. This is brilliant for encouraging their creativity, originality and is a wonderful activity for developing their communication skills. They can create any performance that they wish, making a story with their characters, whether it's a jungle tea party or an adventure amongst the jungle vines and caves!
Jungle Party Food!
Click here to learn how to create these beautiful Safari Cupcakes by the talented Fancy Flours!
Having jungle themed food at the party will make the occasion even more exciting and very yummy! There are lots of different ways of making jungle themed food, and just a little bit of inspiration can transform the most normal of foods into a scrumptious jungle galore.
Buffet style food is the easiest way to serve delicious treats that doesn't involve lots of cooking, and this means that it can all be prepared the night before or even a few days before depending on the nature of your chosen food!
A snake bake is very easy to make and looks fiercly fabulous! How to make a snake bake:
What You Need
- Baguettes
- Ham/Parma Ham/any ham of your choice!
- Cheese
- Herbs
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Cocktail sticks
- Baking tray and oven!
Steps
- Chop a few long baguettes up into small pieces
- Cut and fill each piece with yummy fillings of your choice - cheese and ham works well!
- Now cut thin slices of ham - this can be parma ham or pepperoni
- Lay a couple of slices of ham over the top of each piece of baguette - these will create the snake's stripes!
- Lay all pieces of baguette on a baking tray in a windy shape to make a snake shape!
- Sprinkle a bit of cheese and fresh herbs on top
- Pop in the oven for 10 minutes and the cheese and herbs on top will quickly make a scaley snake skin!
- When baked, put two cherry tomatoes on cocktail sticks and stick these on one end to make snake's eyes!
- You now have a scaley, windy snake bake that's ready to serve!
If you've got a playhouse in the garden, this is the perfect chance to dress up the playhouse and inspire a variety of party games for children. Decorating the playhouse is wonderfully fun and will make it wildly fun for the party! To transform the playhouse into a Jungle galore, you can find certain key accessories in your local shops, or even find them in your garden! The first step is to make the playhouse look like it's covered in jungle vines or leaves - this will make it look very adventurous! If you've got some old branches in your garden, or you're in the process of cutting back your hedges, save the loose branches and place them on the roof and walls of the playhouse. Staples should secure these branches perfectly. Alternatively you can use some green and brown felt pieces to cover the playhouse panels, and this will create an exciting jungle hut.
The youngsters can have a jolly time in their jungle hut, escaping from the surrounding ferocious animals and creating jungle related adventures! If they're all dressed up in their jungle animal costumes, they can actually BE the ferocious animals surrounding the jungle hut! The children will quickly invent their own party games if they've got their own playhouse to play in, and their imaginations will run wild!
Party games for children don't always have to be planned out to the minute, as this kind of imaginative play can keep going for as long as the little ones are inspired. A themed party with lots of decoration and exciting activities to get stuck into, will create such a memorable day for them all to cherish.
Share your jungle party ideas with us!
We hope you have lots of fun at your jungle adventure party, and we'd love to know all about it! - If you'd like to share your thoughts, have any party ideas you'd like to share or would like to let us know how your party went, please get in touch! - theplayexperts@biggamehunters.co.uk