Jungle / Safari Party Ideas & Themes

A Jungle Party / Safari theme allows you to mix the idea of a nature, tribes, wild animals and adventure all together to create a fun party theme. One of the best parts of a Jungle party is that you can do so many parties from this one idea. Plus you can pick and choose what you want to include in your Jungle / Safari party.

Decorating for your Jungle Party / Safari Party
Jungle PartyJungle party decorations don’t have to be complex but if you are creative you can be sucessful.
– Create a Site Camp with Shipping Crates made from large cardboard boxes. Just use a marker to make the boxes look like shipping crates.
-If you are doing a camp you can then add jungle trees, tent and mosquito netting or fishing nets to create your jungle camp.
– For just a jungle theme add palm branches, bamboo, and jungle trees to create your jungle.
– Then add plastic snakes, inflatable monkies, spiders, animal photos and/or animal standees to complete your jungle. If you are doing a Safari theme be sure to include lots of animal images.

Jungle / Safari Costumes & Outfits
Adventure Outfit: Khaki shorts, tan short sleeve shirt and jungle hat
For the Safari Guide or an Archaeologist add a travel bag where you can store props, a canteen or tools
If your guests are acting as tourist just ask them to dress anyway to enjoy the adventure

Jungle Theme Ideas / Safari Story Ideas 
– African Safari, this party theme is all about the animal. Spend time sharing facts about wild animals, ask them true or false questions about African animals and then set up an African Safari tour in the backyard or in a room where you have pictures, balloons or props of animals you would see on a Safari.

– In Search of a Mystical Animal – You and your team has set off deep into the Jungle to find an mystical animal that has been reported but never caught. You can decide whether this creature is a giant monkey, ape, lion, lizard or snake! Plant clues that your assists will find as you hike to areas where the creature has been seen. You can also set up, false leads too. In the end, you can have the team find the creature. It could be someone dressed in a costume, an inflatable animal or a true creature.

– Archaeologist Dig – Build your Jungle Theme around the search for lost ruins or treasure. Your party is set in the jungle and kids can have fun searching for fossils, tribal masks and artifacts in the jungle and then set off on a treasure hunt.

– Train to be a Jungle Guide – For this theme your guest have arrived in the Jungle to learn how to be a Jungle Guide, so they must learn about the land, animals, dangers and survival. So give the facts about the terrain, information of the animals on the plains, dangers like rhinos, crocodiles, lions, charger elephant and others, plus you need to address survival skills like where to find water and what plants and bugs they can eat. At the end of the party, perform a new Jungle Guide ceremony and pronounce them newly



Jungle Party Games and Activities
1. Learn about Wildlife
Play: Who Am I? Animal Game using Jungle Animals
Then after the game is complete, review who was what animal and share interesting facts about each animal.

2. Learn About Jungle Life
Research a tribe or people who live in the Jungles of South America or Africa and tell them about how they live off the land. Then weave in tribal dances, music and customs that help they become part of the tribe. Activities could include face painting, dancing, drumming, making masks, eating regional food and sharing tribal stories around a fire.

If you do a mask activity, it is fun to note that some masks ward off spirits, others bring good luck and other represent the land and sky. Kids can then paint a mask for fun and a purpose. Once the masks are complete then you can do a tribal ceremony that includes the masks and a tribal dance (which you can call a happy dance) in celebration of a Birthday.
(If you do this please have your Adventurer / Guide (host) make up a simple dance that all the kids can learn quickly.)

3. Archaeologist Discoveries / Treasure Hunt
If you are doing an Archaeologist theme consider an activity revealing the findings of an archaeological dig. Items can include an arrowhead or spear used for hunting, a gold necklace worn during a special ceremony that bring the tribe good luck, a hat or headdress worn by the locals.

The goal of this is to build excitement for your junior archeologists as they head with you out into the jungle to find additional artifacts. This can lead you to several party activities:
a. The kids go out and search for 1 artifact to bring back to base camp. Once all the Junior Archeologists have returned they will need to make up and share a story as to what the item is and what it was used for. When planning this activity make sure you include more hidden items then there are guests to make sure that everyone finds something.

b. Hide jungle and tribal artifacts around a room or outdoor area and give a list of the items to each Junior Archeologist. Then let them know they have 5 minutes to find the write where it is located. (For younger kids, we recomend you list the artifacts on one side and then possible matching answers on the other, to make more difficult be sure to include more answers then artifacts.) The guest with the most correct answers wins.

c. Artifact Treasure Hunt. Come up with a list of artifacts and give them a clue as to where the first one might be. Then once they find the next artifact it will then contain a clue to the next one. Each artifact should be more impressive then the last and last one should end with tribal treasure. This site will help you write treasure hunt type clues for your party.

d. Archaeologist Mystery / Treasure Hunt 2 – After showing them something in another area of the house, return to the treasure room / base camp (where other artifacts were) and walk in and pause. Oh my, hmmm, now I did put the gold necklace back in it’s place didn’t I? Most of the kids will say yes. Now continue, it has got to be here somewhere. Continue looking and also say it appears that some additional items that you were going to show them are missing too!

Oh no! It appears that someone has stolen the Golden Necklace and other Tribal Treasures! It looks like we are going to need search the jungle to find these treasures. Continue looking around and then stumble upon a clue.

Then you need to find a clue…
Thanks for the treasure
It suits me fine
You’ll never find it
Unless you can tell time

Now you must recruit the group to take on the challenge and become Adventurer’s who can search for the treasure. If the kids are young coach them to go to the clock and find the next clue. I recommend 8 – 12 clues. For help with writing clues try this site.

Another option is to discover a treasure map during the dig and let them find the clues that way. A little more preparation.

Just make sure you have all the clues set up in place for a Jungle Adventure treasure hunt and then at the end have the treasure. You may or may not want to include a bad guy being captured as part of the story. Make sure to include chocolate coins, beads and other fun items.

4. Animal Charades
Create a list of animals found in the Jungle – Monkeys, Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos, Giraffes, Zebra and others then have the kids select an animal card and act it out while the other kids try to guess what it is. If you can’t come up with a lot of jungle animals the kids would know add some common ones so that each child gets at least one turn.

5. Animal Word Game
List an Animal like Elephant or Hippopotamus and then see how many words the kids can make in 5 minutes by using those letter to form other words. Score words as follows 3 letter words = 1 point, 4 letter words = 2 points, 5 letter words = 3 points, 6 letter words = 4 points, 7 letter words = 5 points and 8 letter words and above = 8 points. The person with the most points wins.

6. Jungle Box – Mystery Guess Game
You can play this two ways:
a. Place place jungle / safari animals in a box and kids are shown a card and must pull out that animal. Note: The kids cannot see inside the box but can only use there hand to feel around and find the correct animal in a limited amount of time, like 30 seconds. If they correctly pull out the animal they stay in the game and have a chance to be the Safari Guide. If they pull out the wrong animal then they are out of the game. Play until you have a winner and if everyone make if through a round then reduce the time they have to find the animal for the next round.

b. Place a variety of jungle and safari toy animals inside a box. Now give each guest a sheet of paper and 1 minutes to identify as many animals inside the box as possible. Correct answers count as 1 point, incorrect answers count as -1 point and the person with the most points wins. View Mystery Guess Game details here. (Note you will need to adjust game for your jungle theme)

More Quick Ideas for your Jungle / Safari Party
Do a Jungle archaeologist dig
Visit a science museum to learn about the jungle and the people who live there
Outdoor fun – Jungle water balloon battle
Animal Bean Bag Toss
Play Barrel of Monkeys and see who link up all the monkies! (Shown Below)
Animal Name Scramble – Mix up the letters of Jungle animals and see who can be the first to correctly list the animals
Pin the Tail on the Monkey, Lion or Elephant, Also consider Pin the Banana on the Monkey (closest to Monkey’s mouth wins)

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