Madagascar Party Ideas

Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria and the rest are here! Everybody has been asking, and now we have them - Party ideas for your Madagascar theme party!

Invitations
Decorations
Tableware
Food & Snacks
Birthday Cakes
Games & Activities
Party Favors

Madagascar Invitations

You can make your own Madagascar the movie invitations by using images from the movie, or try wooden crates (you know, the kind they ship animals in) on the front. For text, say "We're breaking out for birthday fun at [Child's Name] 5th birthday party!"

Madagascar Party Decorations

In your driveway or on the sidewalk leading up to your house, use sidewalk chalk to add various animal footprints. Kids will know they are coming to an extraordinary party when they see the prints outside!

For the inside, go wild! Vines are easy to make out of green paper streamers. Just twist them up and hang them from the ceiling, and over doors and windows.

Add a Jungle Wall Mural (see right) to turn your home into a jungle. Remember the mural at the zoo? Wall murals are a great place to take photos of each guest with some of their party goods. Send the photo to them with a thank you note!

Add some jungle flair with Inflatable Palm Trees, Tropical Scene Windows, or Bamboo-Look Wallpaper.

Do you have house plants? Move them all into one area to give the room a lush, green look. Or buy silk greenery to hang up and turn your home into the Madagascar jungle.

Madagascar Party Tableware

You can use Madacascar plates and other tableware, or choose solids in green for a jungle look, or bright colors for a tropical feel.

Pineapple Cups or Coconut Cups (see right) are fun at the party, and make great keepsakes for party guests.

Madgascar Pary Food & Snacks

Trail Mix

Tropical fruit, nuts, all kinds of wild things... Trail mix is a great snack for a Madagascar Party. Try putting it in paper lunch bags - enough for each guest to have one - and marking it 'Zebra Chow - For Zoo Animals Only'.

Fruit

Another great jungle food! Try chopping bananas in half (the short way). It makes good serving sizes, and also makes it easier for kids to peel them on their own - which they love to do!

Try some exotic fruits - kiwi is fairly easy to get, but most kids don't eat them all that often which, of course, makes them fun! Or try starfruit. They taste a bit like apples, and when sliced, the pieces are shaped like stars. Fresh pineapple is usually a hit with kids, too. If you don't think they'll eat it, you can use them as decorations for the party.

Punch

Fruit Punch makes great "Jungle Punch", just make sure the kids know they do swallow it, not spit it out!

Fish

Fish? At a kids' party?? While Alex decided fish was better than steak, most kids won't enjoy sushi at a birthday party. Try tuna salad on crackers with a small piece of lettuce on top to make 'Alex's Favorite Sushi'! Still too fishy for you? Go for goldfish crackers!

Other Party Snacks

Animal crackers and animal-shaped fruit snacks are always popular with kids, and go great with a Madagascar theme party.

Madagascar Party Birthday Cakes

Here's a super easy Madagascar cake you can make yourself. You need an 8x13 cake, and one cupcake (preferably chocolate).

Frost an inch or so of one of the narrow ends of the cake blue (water). Add a couple inches of light brown (sand) above the blue. Frost the remainder in green (jungle).

Peel the paper off the cupcake and frost the top green. If it is not a chocolate cupcake, cover the sides with chocolate frosting. This is the big tree where the lemurs hung out. Place it at the other end of the cake(away from the sand and water).

Add a few plastic palm trees to the cake along with some plastic jungle animals (check your local dollar store). To finish it off, get a small plastic airplane (again - check your area dollar stores) and stick it in the cupcake tree, and you have an adorable Madagascar birthday cake!

Madagascar Party Games & Activities

Paper Plate Alex (lion) masks (click to go to directions, below)
Paper Plate Penguin masks (click to go to directions, below)
Make Binoculars (click to go to directions, below)

Paper Plate Lion Masks, inspired by Alex
This Madagascar-inspired lion mask is a great startup activity (for when your party is just starting up). Kids can join in easily as they arrive, as everyone makes their own. You can offer this along with the penguin mask below if you like.

You need a paper plate (I used 9" plain paper plates) for each child, crayons, and elastic to hold the mask on. Note: some kids hate to wear masks... consider gluing a popsicle stick to the side of the mask so kids can hold it up instead of wearing it.

We have a template for the mask, so the hard part is already done!

View printable template here or download in PDF format


Directions Overview
Step 1: Print
Step 2: Transfer Design to plate
Step 3: Cut out eye holes
Step 4: Let kids color them
Step 5: Add yarn (optional)
Step 6: Add elastic or stick


Detailed Directions
Step 1: Print the Template
As most printers can not print onto paper plates, you will need to print the mask template on plain paper, cut it out, then (step 2) transfer it to paper plates. There are a few different ways to do this:

• Carbon Paper
  Use carbon paper to trace and transfer the design, then draw over the lines with a black marker
• Fake Carbon Paper
  For those too cheap to buy carbon paper (no offense, I've done it this way:) )... color the back of the template in with pencil. You don't have to do the white areas, just wherever there are lines to transfer. Then place the template on the paper plate and trace over the lines. The pencil marks will transfer to the plate, then you can draw over them with a black marker.
• Glue
  This is by far the easiest way. Print as many copies of the template as you need, then cut them out and glue them onto paper plates. This works fine, just make sure you glue all the edges well so they don't peel up as kids are coloring. Also, make sure you give the glue plenty of time to dry as crayons don't work well if the paper is damp from glue. Also note - the glue may show through when you the picture is colored.

Step 3: Cut out the eyeholes on the lines.

Step 4: Have plates and crayons ready for when kids arrive. For colors, I used brown for the face, black for nose, inside ears, and eyebrows, red for mouth, and brown, gold, and yellow for the mane. Most kids are more creative than I am, and may want a larger choice of colors:)

Step 5: If you want to do a little something extra with the Madagascar lion mask, use a hole punch to put a few holes along the forehead, and let kids tie yarn through the holes. You could actually add yarn all the way around, but it can be quite time consuming, and young kids will need help tying the yarn.

Step 6: Add elastic. You can punch a small hole on each side of the mask level with the eyes, push the elastic through and knot it, or you can staple it on. Or attach a popsicle stick along one edge of the mask so kids can hold it up instead of wearing it.

That's it - project done! Don't forget to allow a little time to let the kids run around and roar!

[back to games & activities]

Paper Plate Penguin Masks

Kids can't get enough of Skipper and the other Madagascar penguins. They can bring the characters to life with these Madagascar - inspired make-it-yourself penguin masks!

This penguin mask is a great startup activity (for when your party is just starting up). Kids can join in easily as they arrive, as everyone makes their own. You can offer this mask along with the lion mask above, if you like.

You need a paper plate (I used 9" plain paper plates) for each child, black and orange crayons (or use orange construction paper), and elastic to hold the mask on. Note: some kids hate to wear masks... consider gluing a popsicle stick to the side of the mask so kids can hold it up instead of wearing it.

I have created a template for the mask and beak, which you can print or download below...

Open the printable penguin template here or download the template in PDF format

Open the printable beak template here or download the template in PDF format

Detailed Directions
Step 1: Print the template (both the penguin and the beak - each penguin requires 2 beak pieces and each beak template page has 4 beaks, enough for 2 penguins)

Step 2: Cut out the penguin mask template.

Step 3: Trace the penguin template onto paper plates

Step 4: Trim the edges of the plate to match the template (where the neck curves in)

Step 5: Cut out eyeholes.

Step 6: Cut the beak template page in half so there are two beaks (one square) on a page. It is easier for kids to color them if they are still on the page, not pre-cut. Note: You could put the beaks onto orange colored construction paper, then precut them.

Step 7: Let the kids color the penguins and the beaks.

Step 8: Cut out colored beaks, or let kids cut them. Note: For the beaks, cut out the square, then cut the diagonal line in the middle, so you have 2 triangle shapes.

Step 9: Fold under 1/4" at lower edge (longest edge) of beak pieces. Glue one beak piece on top of the other, so one folded edge is on top of other folded edge, and the two folded edges are inside the mouth. Glue beak onto Penguin.

Step 10: Add elastic. You can punch a small hole on each side of the mask level with the eyes, push the elastic through and knot it, or you can staple it on. Or attach a popsicle stick along one edge of the mask so kids can hold it up instead of wearing it.

[back to games & activities]

Binoculars

If you're going to be on the lookout for any animals that may have escaped from the zoo, you'll need a good pair of 'binoculars'. This is a super easy craft that kids love!

Each guest needs 2 empty toilet paper rolls, plus you need heavy tape (I like electrical tape for this) and yarn to hang them with.

You can paint the rolls ahead of time if you like, or give the kids markers, stickers, etc to decorate them with. Then simply tape the two tubes next to each other, and attach the yarn at the end so kids can wear them around their necks (I use a hole punch to make the holes for the yarn).

Just that easy you have a fun party craft activity that kids will enjoy throughout the party and afterwards!

Madagascar Birthday Party Favors

Jungle Animal Beads

Jungle Animal Finger Puppets

Animal Slap Bracelets

Madagascar Stickers

Plastic Jungle Animals

Animal Print Bandanas