Jungle Crafts

Jungle crafts are a great way to ignite a child's imagination and explore a new world of animals. Here are some of the jungle crafts that I've come up with.

Paper Plate Snakes - Paint both sides of a paper plate green. Let dry. Cut plate starting at outer edge and spiraling towards the center. Stop cutting when you get about 4 or 5 inches from the center. The center of the plate will be the snake's head. Make eyes on your snake with a marker or glue on wiggle eyes. You can also glue on some red curly ribbon for a tongue.

Safari Maps - Tear a large piece of paper out of a large brown paper bag. Crumple it up and uncrumple it several times until it gets soft and starts to resemble a piece of leather. (You could take it one step further with older children by painting it with brown water colors. The color seeps into the wrinkles in the paper making it look more realistic.) Help the child imagine that they are supposed to draw a map to a treasure and turn them loose with markers, stickers, stamps, etc. When they are done, pretend that you are in the jungle and follow the map.

Tropical Paper Plate Bird - Paint the back side of a paper plate any color you want and let dry. Cut feather shapes out of various colors of construction paper. Cut a circle out of black construction paper for an eye and an orange triangle for a beak. Fold the paper plate in half and staple on the edge opposite the fold. Put the triangle in the fold of the plate on one edge and staple in place to make the beak. Glue on eye. Glue on construction paper feather shapes where the wings should be. Cut a few strips of tissue paper, streamers, etc. to make the tail. They should be a variety of lengths and about 1-2 inches wide. Gather them up at one end and put them in the fold of the plate opposite the beak and staple in place.

Monkey Puppet - Print out the monkey template in color or black and white. Color the parts if necessary and cut them out. Cut out 4 strips of brown construction paper that are about 1 inch wide and 11-12 inches long. Take each of your strips of paper and fold them like an accordian so that when they are folded they are about an inch square. These are the monkey's arms and legs. Glue a hand or foot to the end of each accordian strip. Glue the monkey's head onto it's body. Glue each of the arms and legs onto the right spot on the body. You can turn this monkey into a funny puppet by gluing a craft stick to the back.

Paper Plate Elephant - Paint the back of a paper plate gray (or any other color you choose) and let dry. Print out the black and white or color template. Color the parts, if necessary, and cut out the pieces. Glue or staple the ears onto the plate on opposite edges. Make sure you put the ears behind the plate so the tabs don't show. Glue on the trunk and eyes.

Giraffe Paper Bag Puppet - Print out one of the giraffe templates ( color - or - black and white). Color the giraffe, if necessary, and cut out the 2 parts. Glue the giraffe's head to the bottom of a small lunch-sized paper bag. Lift up the fold and glue in the neck of the giraffe so that when you put your hand inside the bag it looks like the giraffe has a head on top of a neck.

Paper Plate Monkey - Supplies: A paper plate, brown paint, brown construction paper, tan construction paper, glue, and this template. Directions: Paint your paper plate brown and let dry. Use the template below to cut out the ears and face of the monkey out of tan colored construction paper. (If you want, you could just paint on the face using the template.) Glue the ears onto the back of the paper plate and glue the face on the front. Use a marker to draw in the eyes, nose and mouth.

Monkey Mask - Print out one of the mask templates (color mask or black and white). Color the mask (if using black and white) and cut out around the monkey head. A parent should do the eyes because it is a little difficult for children. To make it a mask, simply glue a craft stick onto one side of the mask or staple an elastic string to both sides so that child can wear it hands free.

Zebra Stripes - Print the picture of the zebra without the stripes, or you can use a picture of a horse. Cut thin strips of black paper (I use a paper shredder for this as it is quicker). Give children black strips of paper and glue to make their own zebra picture. ~ Submitted by Jeanette

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