When the “dog days of summer” have your kiddos wondering what to do, we’ve put together some jungle-themed crafts and activities to keep them busy. They’ll use their brains to create art and their bodies to burn off energy by trying just a few of these suggestions.
Creative Crafting
Summer may have your little ones bored enough that they beg for something to do. Check out these crafts, straight out of the jungle, to do with your children:
Handprint Animal Art
A Monkey on a Vine | An Elephant in the Grass | A Tiger in the Jungle
Images from: funhandprintartblog.com/tag/jungle-animal-craft
These handprint animals are so easy to create, but so adorable and fun!
Simply use acrylic paint, which you can find at any department or discount store. Have your child dip their entire palm and fingers into the color of their favorite animal, and then add the details with other shades of paint and markers.
If you want to add googly eyes and a construction paper vine or grass, you can do that instead of painting the extra add-ons.
Your child can make their own “jungle” of animals with their handprints!
Other Jungle Creature Crafting
Image from: Etsy
This paper chain snake is one that anyone can make. Your child can decorate the links as they like and attach them one by one to each other. On each end of the chain, flatten the link and have an adult (for the little ones) cut out a head shape and a tapered tail. They can add a red tongue for the snake’s mouth.
Safari Binoculars
Image from: artscrackers.com/2015/08/17/themed-playdate-games-craft-tutorial-free-printable/
These simple binoculars will make your child feel like they are on a real African safari! Using two toilet paper tubes or a paper towel tube cut in half, cover the tubes with colored paper or paint them, and add green vines and branches to the outside with markers. Glue them together. Strips of brown paper and a string of yarn or cord will put the finishing touches to their project.
For extra fun, put up pictures of different jungle animals from coloring pages or magazines for them to find around the house or yard. They can collect the images or write down the ones they’ve seen to keep a journal of their sightings.
Cake Play-Dough
Image from: https://littlelearningclub.com/two-ingredient-cake-dough-taste-safe/
With two simple ingredients, you can make edible dough for your children to play with. If you use vanilla frosting, you can color it with flavored drink mixes of any color. You won’t want to encourage them to eat this because of the sugar in the frosting, but if they do, the ingredients are not harmful to humans.
They can make jungle animals, trees, flowers, and a host of other things with the dough.
Activities That Keep Your Child Moving (Even When It’s Hot Outside)!
Jungle Maze/Obstacle Course and Spider Web Maze.
Image from: momtastic.com/parenting/diy-for-moms/650801-diy-jungle-obstacle-course/
The image above shows the obstacle course outside in the shade, but if it’s blazing hot outside, you can move this indoors. Use chairs and other upright things to string your lines from. Put them about your child’s knee height and leave gaps for them to be able to step over. Time them going through the course, and the one to go through in the least amount of time wins!
If you have a tunnel like the one shown or other obstacles for them to go through first, this adds another element to the experience. Create hoops for them to crawl under using pool noodles, and set up cones for them to zigzag through as they navigate the course.
A Twist on the Traditional Obstacle Course
Image from: whatmomslove.com/kids/active-indoor-games-activities-for-kids-to-burn-energy/
(This site has tons of other great ideas, too!)
Or, for a more challenging spider web obstacle maze, use tape to make different levels for your child to go through without touching the tape. They may have to crawl, climb over, duck, or crab crawl to go through it! Make them use every muscle to go from one end to the other.
Traditional, But With a New Spin
Older games that kids have played for decades can be reintroduced and enjoyed with your little ones now, with a few added elements.
Think of the game Red Light, Green Light. One child is the “light,” giving the stop and go commands, and the others try to reach them first. They can move closer if the light is green, but must stop if the light turns red. To ramp it up a bit, have the “light,” also give the instruction of what the other players must do to advance towards them, i.e., “Green Light! You may only come forward hopping like a monkey on all fours!” or “ Green Light! You any only come forward doing the crab walk,” etc. You’ll have the children using their bodies in various ways and exercising muscles they may not have used in a while.
Duck, Duck, Goose is a game that keeps everyone on their toes! When the person walking around the circle taps the head of someone sitting in it, they could stipulate which exercise they both must do to get around the circle and back to their seats first: “hop like a bunny, crawl like a snake, or walk like an elephant.”
How about Hide and Seek? You have one person seeking the others who are hiding. If the seeker finds the hidden children, they are out of the game. For a twist, make sure all those who are hiding are in a particular position when they hide, i.e., squatting like a frog, standing on one foot like a flamingo, or have the seeker be blindfolded and try to reach the hiders only by the sound of their voice making a jungle animal sound. This addition to the game heightens sensory skills.
Bottle Bowling
Image from: diyncrafts.com/17772/home/35-ridiculously-fun-diy-backyard-games-borderline-genius
It seems like all kids love to bowl! You can make your lane with chalk on your driveway or patio and set up recycled bottles painted like pins. Get a ball the size you think will be large enough to knock down the pins, and either keep score like the professionals or knock them down and then count the pins. Bring this game indoors or to the garage on dreary days to keep your children occupied and moving!
Summing It Up!
Jungle Roots Dentistry knows you want your kiddos to be actively moving and also using their brain muscles. These crafts and activities should inspire you and your children to create and do something special that stimulates them and helps them avoid boredom. Enjoy family time with your little ones!