by James Johnson

Created on: April 12, 2010

The song, The Lion sleeps Tonight, written by S. Linda and  popularized around the world by Pete Seeger starts "in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight"; and it has stirred the imagination of children all around the world.  The cadence gets children singing, laughing and thinking about the jungle.  It is extremely useful for getting kids in the mood for jungle crafts!

What would any jungle be without the animals?  One of the easiest jungle safari crafts to create with kids is animal masks.  You can use a bit of papermache or even just a paper sack and suddenly there is a class of lions, tigers, gorillas and even giraffes running around in the jungle of the classroom.  It is simple and yet a great craft idea for a jungle safari..

No jungle safari would be complete without some way to protect yourself, so time to make some weapons.  Weapons that are fun and safe for kids to make as crafts can mostly be made from bamboo.  Thin pieces can be hollowed out and made into blow guns (They can shoot peas rather than poison darts).  If it is green bamboo, or greenish, it can be made into bows and arrows, but put rubber tips on the ends.  A piece of big bamboo can be modified with papermache and made into an elephant gun.

While on jungle safari, the hunters end up drinking a lot as they need their gin and tonic to cut down on malaria, so they need drinking utensils.  Glass can break and paper and plastic are trashy, this is a classy jungle safari, so use joints of bamboo and have each child paint theirs with a jungle creature.  They can also make jungle soup bowls or vases in which to  put jungle flowers.  Bamboo is great for jungle safari crafts!

There is also being able to watch for birds and animals while on jungle safari, and for that one needs binoculars.  Any child can solve this problem, use cardboard toilet rolls.  A telescope can be easily created using either a paper towel roll ot even a long cardboard rolled into a tube.  

The weapons made earlier are merely to frighten off the animals and protect yourself, safaris today are done using cameras!  Get small cereal boxes and make some cameras!  It only requires a bit of paint and some imagination, schools and children usually have both!  You can even get them to learn the parts of the camera.

These are some of the great jungle safari crafts for kids.

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