Coolest Birthday Game Ideas for a Safari Theme Party

Here’s an awesome collection of Safari birthday game ideas, perfect for throwing the coolest ever Safari party.

Elephant Race

This birthday game is hilarious! Divide all the kids into two teams, and have them line up. First kid bends at the waist, puts one arm in front of their face like an elephant’s trunk, and puts their other hand through their legs toward the person behind them.

The next kid bends over, grabs the first kid’s “tail” with their “trunk”, then extends their “tail” through their legs, and so on until you have two teams of “elephants”, lined up and ready to go. Then have a race (you can do this a couple of times to let other kids be the elephant leader).

Monkey See Monkey Do

This game is similar to the classic “Simon says”, only with a safari theme party twist. Give the kids commands to make animal sounds or move like animals. For example: Monkey says, “Swing your trunk like an elephant.” Monkey says, “Run like a Cheetah.” “Squeal like a monkey!” and so on.

Animal Charades

Have the kids prepare animal index cards during the icebreaker activities and use them for this game. Each kid gets a turn to pick a card. Then they must act out their creature (no words are allowed, but animal noises are encouraged) until the others shout out the animal and then everyone has to act out the same animal together. Get the adults to play this one. This party activity usually produces lots of laughs (and other interesting noises…)

Elephant Peanut Race

Mark a start and finish line. Then line the kids side by side at the starting point and place a peanut on the starting line in front of each kid. The object of the game is to see who can push the peanut to the finish line first… Easy? Oh, I forget to say that they can only use their noses! (and please don’t forget to video-tape!)

Pinata Hunt

Here’s another great birthday game… You can have the kids dress in their safari khakis, including pith helmets and binoculars, and go out on a hunting expedition to find candy-filled Lions or Zebras hanging from the branches…

Animal Family Safari Group

Submitted by Namita from Melbourne, Australia

This is for a big group, kids as well as parents. Make animal family notes, like Mr. Lion, Mrs. Lion and Baby Lion (each written on its own note); Mr. Elephant, Mrs. Elephant and baby Elephant, and so on and so forth for as many participants in the game. Distribute the notes to all such that they are folded and no one knows what they have got. One person is the Game Monitor. As soon as he/she indicates, everyone opens their note. Now they start making the noise of that particular animal that he/she has got. So they roar or bark, etc and do no talking.

The aim is that they should form families. So Mr. Lion, Mrs. Lion and Baby Lion should identify their family from the crowd only by the roaring. As soon as the family is formed, they should run to the designated area and ring a bell or bang the gong. The family which is able to group together first is the winner.

This game is a big hit in large groups as there is a lot of commotion, confusion and noise which is the fun part. You can have animals and birds together or make bigger families by including Grandpa Animal, Grandma Animal, etc. But more the animals and smaller the families the better.

Guess Your Animal Game

Tape a paper with a picture or name of an animal on the kids’ (and parents’) back. The kids have to ask “Yes” and “No” questions until they find out what their animal is.

Giraffe Stretch

For this birthday game, pair up the kids. Give them a doughnut on a string and have one of them tie it around their waist so it hangs down reaching somewhere around their knees. Have their counterpart lie face up just beneath the hanging doughnut. Now, with only crouching and stretching (and no hands allowed) lets see who finishes the doughnut first. You can also have the doughnut hanging from a branch so that the kids have to stand on their tiptoes to reach it.

Unshelled Peanut Hunt

Hide many unshelled peanuts all around your house and yard and tell the kids that they all are elephants who are looking for their peanuts. Give each kid a bucket or cup for the peanuts and have them walk around with their hands dangling like trunks. The winner is the elephant with the most peanuts and best posture, but it’s not over yet… The next game is a continuation of this one…

Peanut Eating Contest

The winner of the last game is the one with the most peanuts. Now, have the kids place the peanuts on the ground (or a table) in front of them and without using their hands, let’s see who can peel and eat all their peanuts and finish first. Usually here, the kid who found the least peanuts in the last game has the most chances to win this game.

Animal Hunt

Basically you get a big bag of plastic animals and hide them around the house. The kids can then put on their safari hats and binoculars and go hunt for animals. At the end of the hunt the kids then count there animals and the winners go in order of who has the most plastic animals. There is a prize for each place.

Roaring Contest

This birthday game is pretty simple and if the kids get into it, it’s lots of fun. Each kid roars his best lion roar and the best roars win awards (one for loudest, one for most scary, most original, etc.).

Animal Jell-O Eating Contest

This contest gives the kids a way to show their animal instincts!! Make a bowl of Jell-O for each kid. Label each bowl with a wild animal, such as a lion, tiger, hippo, rhino, zebra, giraffe, etc. Lay a protective covering on the ground (or have this contest outside because it gets REAL messy!) and line the bowls up. Throughout the game, each kid must keep their hands on the ground beside their bowl. When the command is given to start, all contestants start eating their Jell-O without using their hands. The first animal to clean his or her bowl wins!

Musical Animals Safari Birthday Game

Submitted by Kelly F. from Australia

We had 40 children at my son’s animal party so we came up with this version of musical chairs. Outside make a ring (size is depending on how many children you have there). In the middle of the ring add toy animals (the little kind you get in toy shops). At the start add one for every child so no one feels left out, than as you have each child taken out of the game, take one animal out etc. You can play so that whoever leaves the circle gets a small prize (maybe the plastic animal), and that way they don’t feel so bad when they leave the game. We also had fun animal songs playing for the music, kids had a ball and so did I (didn’t need to use big bulky chairs!).

Take a look at our complete Safari theme party section for more of the coolest party-planning ideas.

Kid Birthday Parties › Kid Activities › Safari Birthday Game Ideas

1 thought on “Coolest Birthday Game Ideas for a Safari Theme Party”

Brittany
January 27, 2014 at 2:55 pm
Rock Safari Souvenir Activity
Have the kids go out and find any kind of flat rock/s (flat enough that they can glue things to it. You can also have these rocks ready before the party so that the kids don’t need to look for flat rocks). Then get stamps, stickers, googly eyes, etc. and let the kids decorate their rocks. When they’re done decorating their rocks, they can take them home as a souvenir from the safari party.

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