While waiting for all the guests to arrive, put on "The Jungle Book" movie. Then, once everyone arrives, you could have everyone decorate their own safari hat. (They are the cheapest at the dollar store).  Lay out glitter, animal  toys, confetti, fabric paint, and other materials that  they could use. Next, play a tape of the different noises that animals make and have everyone guess which animals it is.

Treasure Hunt--throughout the room, hide some toy animals and/or animal shaped candy. The clues were related to animals.



In the shape of a monkey, cut from two 9-inch round cakes. From one round, cut a ring, roughly 1-1/2 inches wide, all around.  The inner circle will be the head of the monkey.  Cut the ring in half; the two half-rings will be the arms of the monkey.  From the second round, make two parallel cuts, from one edge to the opposite edge, about 5-6 inches apart.  You should be left with a rectangle (slightly rounded on the short ends) that measures about 9x6 inches, and two semi circles. Cut a curved section from the straight edge of each semi-circle, leaving a curved piece that is an even width, about 1-1/2 inches wide. The rectangle will be the body of your monkey, the short curved pieces are the legs. After assembling the pieces on your serving piece, you may want to shape it a bit by trimming some from the end of the arms, and by curving some of the sharp edges. Now, frost with chocolate or brown icing (you can use dyed coconut if you like).  Add a large pink circle of icing to the face, with a curved line for his smiling mouth, and two smaller white circles with black dots for his eyes.  Finally, frost two small, flat cookies with brown icing, then add a circle of pink icing, and stick these in the sides of the head for the ears. It's easier than is sounds!


 

Ask those invited to dress like an animal.  Halloween costumes are great for this.



Binoculars -Each child covers two toilet paper tubes with pre-cut animal-print paper (available at craft stores or you can print at home). Tape or glue the 2 tubes together, punch holes in the sides and add string or yarn. 

Jungle Craft Ideas



Bring every plant  (real or artificial) into the party area.  Decorate with different shades of green crepe paper.  Balloons could be hung from the ceilings.  Place any stuffed animals on the table, around the plants, or even in the branches and leaves. Cut out tree trunks from brown paper grocery sacks and different shapes of leaves from green paper and make more trees to put on the walls to fill in gaps between the potted trees and plants. (You can buy large rolls of solid green wrapping paper inexpensively and the leftovers can be used a Christmas.)  Print a jungle-themed sign that reads "It's a jungle in here" and hung it on the front door with balloons around it.

Download jungle noises from the internet to play in the background to set the mood!

See how someone decorated with a few balloons and photocopies of vines



Take a piece of cardboard and cut out 8 inches by 11 inches. Then glue green tissue paper for the trees and  paste on some toy animals. In the center of the  board, draw a lake and put the party information on there.
 

Chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, French fries and fresh tropical fruits served in a watermelon, cut to resemble a basket. Serve food on jungle themed plates, cups, placemats etc... You could also have teriyaki meatballs with toothpicks.

Jungle Mix    

2 cups dried banana chips
1 cup corn bran, toasted oat or bran squares cereal
1 cup peanuts or whole almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds
 

Put all the ingredients into a paper sack. Close the sack and shake it well.  It may be stored up to one month.



Play "I Spy" going on an animal hunt.  Use the binoculars you made earlier in the party (see above craft idea).  Pin the tail on the monkey.  You could play Hyena, Hyena, Lion -instead of Duck, Duck, Goose.  Elephant Race -divide group into two teams, and have them line up.  First child bends at the waist, puts one arm in front of face for her elephant nose, and puts her other hand through her legs toward the person behind her.  The next person bends over, grabs the first girl's "tail" with her "nose", then extends her "tail" through her legs, and so on until you have two teams of "elephants", lined up and ready to go. Have the teams race across the room, around a chair, and back to the starting line. Do this enough times to let each person have a chance to be the lead elephant.



In the goodie bags you could put toy animals, cheap sunglasses, candy animals, pencils with leopard print, animal fruit snacks, or a tape with animal sounds on it.

Lion Piñata
Monkey Piñata