Zoo Animals Party -6yr- Giraffe Cake

Zoo Animals Party  For my son's 6th birthday, his Kindergarten class had just finished a unit on animals and had taken a trip to the Atlanta Zoo.  I continued this theme, we put several indoor trees around the party area, and ferns on the table. 

Ahead of time, I made paper animals using books like "Roll-a-zoo" and "Paper Bag Art Projects" (for some of the projects I used the paper bags and some a used cereal boxes covered with construction paper so that they would stand up & hold  their shape better) and with these animals I used them for decorations but also as part of a safari hunt game where the clues were attached to some of the animals.  Most of the children in his class are emergent readers so I developed his safari hunt around the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?   So that the clues went something like: Green alligator, green alligator what do you see?  I see a (description of the next animals to find the clue under) large yellow carnivorous member of the cat family looking at me!

Because I was limited to simple animals and descriptions I setup three areas for them to search: the desert (outside in sandbox), the jungle (in the trees and ferns in Living Rm), and a pond (draped a table with a blue bed sheet and blue cellophane & artificial greenery around the pond in Den/Playroom). I created about 20 animals of which I attached clues to 12 of the animals. We also made each child a set of binoculars from 2 toilet paper rolls stapled together and spray painted forest green or black. 

To set the stage of the hunt for the kids and introduce the 3 areas that the animals could be hidden, I created a map something like a treasure map. The kids used their binoculars to hunt for the clues and animals. The hunt ended in the desert with a cobra tongue coming out of a basket, when the basket was opened the treats were covered by a towel and the last clue was attached to the belly of the snake. The clue told the kids that the cobra saw a group of children looking at her and that she was guarding their treasure underneath and inside the basket were their treat bags. After the safari hunt, the children played on the swing set and we had 2 other activities setup for them to do if they chose to: Gator golf and a beanbag toss where you throw beanbags through the animals mouths. 

Later, we came inside and had giraffe cake  (directions for the cake came from the Internet) also gave the kids foam masks from Oriental Trading. We also used items for their goodie bags from Oriental Trading Company. After snacks of goldfish & other animal shaped treats, we had giraffe cake and then we opened presents and the party was finished.  

Directions for cake from the Internet: CAKE - Giraffe cake: 2 boxes of cake mix. Make up a regular sized 13x9 cake pan (body parts), second cake put in a bowl and bake (head) plus do three cup cakes for (nose). From the 12x9 inch cake cut two 2 1/4 rounds using biscuit cutters. These are for the antler tips. Also cut 2 pieces each for 2 1/2x1 1/2 inches for the antler stems. Cut a piece 4x3 1/2 inches (neck) and 2 ears, about 4 1/2 inches long and 3 inches across.

Then shape the ears (looks like a leaf shape). Take 2 of the muffins cut 1/2 to 3/4 inch slice from the bottom of the third muffin and a small slice off the edge (mouth). Assembly round (face), then neck. Then add the antler stems and rounds. Add cupcake nose, and mouth. Decorate with yellow frosting. Do the inside of the ears with brown frosting. Use chocolate round cookies such as Cameo or Vienna Fingers as the dots on the outside of the face and neck (alter them). Chocolate frosting for bangs. Now add eyes two sandwich cookie and scrape off frosting. Cut ends off and place above nose. Then cut two shorter chocolate cookies to lay over the whites of the eye. Add licorice for nostrils.  Note:

After spending the time to make the animals and clues, I didn't want to throw it away so I gave it to his Kindergarten teacher to use next year with her zoo unit. And because all the kids in the class couldn't come to the party, we repeated the scavenger hunt again in the courtyard so she could see how it worked, the kids loved it!