Safari Craft and Activities
Have you ever pretended to go on a safari adventure?
We did! Little Sister and I made a safari craft, then pretended to be in an imaginary African savannah where we searched for animals and went on an alphabet hunt.
We received a fun lunchbox craft kit from the Elmer’s featuring their Early Learners product line. Inside was a cute craft idea with the supplies needed to make the craft including an Early Learners glue stick and pen. We put our own spin on the craft using the materials provided and came up with a safari adventure bag featuring a torn paper giraffe on one side and a lion on the other side.
A little about the Early Learners glue stick and glue pen:
Both are triangular in shape which help promote proper writing grip – plus they don’t roll away! The cap fits on the top meaning no more losing it. The glue goes on purple making it easy for younger children to see where they have placed the glue, but it dries clear. The glue pen is so much easier for my 3 year old to squeeze than regular glue bottles and the tip allows for better control of the amount that comes out. We have been using them for just under a year and absolutely love them. See them in action in these past posts from our archives: paper plate birds, St Patrick’s Day preschool skills craft, and a create-a-monster busy bag craft.
How to make the Safari Adventure Bag:
Supplies needed:
- brown paper grocery bag or similar
- construction paper
- scissors
- Early Learners glue stick or pen
- pencil
- markers
- Optional: googly eyes, pom poms
Prep:
Cut and tear yellow and orange construction paper. You should have one small pile of thin strips and one small pile of torn pieces.
Lightly draw a simple giraffe outline. Turn the bag over and draw a circle for the lion’s head.
Instructions for making the lion craft:
- Use the glue stick (or pen) to fill in the circle.
- Add torn pieces of yellow paper plus add pieces to create ears.
- Draw another circle around the now yellow circle. Have the child add glue inside the outline. This will be the lion’s mane. A
- dd yellow and orange strips . I told my daughter that the lion’s hair should be attached it’s head – she said it looked like a sun, tee hee!
- Add googly eyes and a pom pom nose.
- Draw on a mouth and whiskers.
- Write King of the Jungle in bubble letters if you’d like or decorate it a different way.
Instructions for making the giraffe craft:
- Have the child fill the giraffe template you drew with glue,.
- Add pieces of the torn yellow paper plus add random orange pieces to create the spots.
- Add 2 tiny yellow stips on topof the giraffe’s head as well as ears.
- Glue tiny pom poms to the top of the tiny strips.
- Add a googly eye. Draw on a mouth and a nostril.
- Write Safari Adventure. My daughter is going through a phase right now where she likes to color parts of things in multiple colors. She got upset when I colored one letter all the same color!
Go on a Safari Adventure
Hide stuffed animals around your home for the kids to find. They could use a checklist to mark off the ones they find or use the bag to transfer them to a spot on the couch or floor. Make it even more fun by having them search using binoculars!
Go on an Alphabet Hunt
Hide alphabet magnets or puzzle pieces with stuffed animals. Every time they find an animal they can collect the alphabet letter it was holding. Once they collect all 26 letters, they will have completed their safari adventure, Make it more fun by presenting them with a certificate. You could also make them a fun safari lunch or an extra-special snack like animal crackers. Some lunch ideas could be animal shaped sandwiches
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Disclosure: I received free products and compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% mine and not influenced in any way.
This is so cute! I am pinning it to my Kids’ Crafts board.
Thanks so much for pinning 🙂