Hobbies And Interests
Elephant Race
Divide your party into two teams and line them up. If you have both kids and adults playing, have a kids team and an adults team so team members are similar in height. The first person in the line must bend over at the waist, put an arm in front of his face to make an elephant's trunk, and put his other arm through his legs so his hand is reaching out to the person behind him. The person behind him must bend over at the waist, grab the hand (tail) with his hand (trunk), and put his other hand (tail) through his legs. Everyone in the line must go through the same process so that there are eventually two lines of elephants standing with tails in trunks. When they are ready, ask them to race to a given point, such as the end of the yard. Whichever line of elephants gets there first wins. Do several rounds of this game so different people get to be the leader.
Jungle Charades
Prior to the party, get postcard-sized pieces of card and put one sticker of a different animal on each, or cut out pictures of animals from magazines and stick those on. At the party, ask the participants to take turns to pick a card. Each person must act out the animal on the card, using no words at all. Advise them that they can use animal noises to supplement their gestures or acting. Everyone else must guess which animal the person is acting out.
Hungry Lions
This is an especially good game for kids to play in the yard. Choose one or two players to be the lions. Everyone else is an antelope. The game starts when the party organizer shouts "Feeding time!" The lions must chase the antelopes and try to catch them. When a lion catches an antelope, the antelope must stand still and straddle his legs. The other antelopes must try to free the captured antelopes by crawling between their legs. The lions have won if all the antelopes have been captured. Play a few times so that different players get to be the lions.
Pin the Tail
Instead of going with the traditional Pin the Tail on the Donkey game, make a Pin the Tail on a Lion, Zebra or any other jungle animal you can think of. Use at least an A2 sized piece of card to draw on a picture of an animal, using a photo of the animal to help you. Make enough tails for each member of the party to have one. You could even make a Pin-the-Banana-on-the-Monkey game, where players have to get the banana in the monkey's hand. When it's time to play the game, blindfold each player, spin her around three times and get her to place the tail or banana on the picture. The person who gets the tail or banana closest to the correct spot wins.