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Monkey Party with Fun Games and BaboonsThis was a fun-filled birthday party for the 9-year-old daughter of friends that had 50 kids with many monkey themed activities. My husband and I helped with decorations and creating the games, but I've added some additional ideas here.See more Fun Birthday Party Ideas. Shop for Unique Monkey Gifts and Decor. |
Working with Real Primates
Kevin Keith from Monkey Business Productions is shown working with the baboon at party for kids and adults. The kids learned a lot without being aware it was actually a lesson about primates. Great up-close, one-on-one teaching.- Monkey Business Productions based in Napa Valley, CA, gave the presentation which featured live baboons and birds - absolutely fantastic! Call Martina and Kevin Keith at 800-278-0002 if you'd like to have them perform at your party in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Good looking, funny, fast-moving (both the humans and the primates). Very entertaining, informative and funny!
Live Baboon Entertainment
Kevin Keith with live baboon at monkey party. These animals have a lot of personality and are so much fun to watch.
Monkey Business
Baboon sitting on party guest's head. They can kid around with the best of them. Warning - don't try to out-entertain the entertainers. They are very talented and you will quickly become the punch line of the joke.
Monkey Fur Preening Competition
Fast-faced entertaining game that was *very* different than any other party game you've played. Kids were all very into trying to win.- Buy a piece of fake fur fabric with long hair. Cut up into equal-sized sections (large enough for all kids to comfortable sit or stand around) with one for each group and place on construction tables or the floor.
- Toss a generous handful of rice across the fur. Set put a small bowl that the kids will use to fill with the rice (lice?) they collect.
- Give kids 2 minutes to collect as much rice as they can. Weigh with postal scale or measure results with measuring spoons if it is too close to eye-ball. Team with the most rice wins.
Monkey Rope-Climbing Contest
Treasure Hunt
Monkey party rope climber was trying to reach clue at the top of the ropes.- Created "clues" from clip art and photos of primates and bananas. Use clip art from the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery.
- Place clip art pictures around the home and yards that have clues taped on the backside. Clues give a hint about the location of next clue. About 20 - 25 clues would be a good amount for this age group. We recommend putting up decoy pictures to mix things up, plus adding text clues such as Lemur when you have more than one lemur picture up on the walls. Adding text identifying each primate is educational without being obvious about it. Wear out the kids by alternating clues inside and outside, as well as upstairs and downstairs.
- Hide prizes for all the kids in a secret location for the final clue. Suggested hiding spots include a a basket in the pantry, bread drawer, inside the oven (tape over the knob with the word "stop" if using this hiding spot), or in the washing machine. Any of these can be good hiding place for prizes. The prizes were actually the party favor bags plus some squirt guns to play with as the party wound down.
Monkey Party Decorations
- Barrel of Monkey Decorations: Accordion-fold a long length of plain wrapping paper into 3' wide sections. Draw on a monkey with its tail touching the right edge and one of each of its hands touching a side. (See picture of yellow and red banner monkeys.) Cut out, being sure not to cut through the edges where the monkey is touching the edges. Unfold and draw eyes, mouth, nostrils, lines between fingers and ear details on each section. This creates a long connected chain of monkeys. Tape to walls, railings and across windows.
- String yellow and green colored streamers from the ceiling to look like vines.
- Covered table with green tablecloth. Add monkey-themed party supplies such as napkins, cups, and plates, plus plastic knives, spoons and forks in shades of green, brown or black.
- Use inflatable plastic monkeys from party supply store online and hang them from railings, chandeliers, doorknobs, etc.
Monkey Cake and Monkey Party Food
Although we helped with the games and decorations at this party we attended, the hostess just had a store-bought a birthday cake with plastic monkeys stuck on it. I decided to try making my own monkey cake later as shown at left.- Monkey Cake: For cake making directions and pattern pieces, click on Monkey Cake Instructions.
- Monkey Pizzas: For a smaller group, have kids make their own monkey face pizzas. Start with mini Boboli pizzas or use refrigerated pizza dough like they have at Trader Joe's and pre-bake about 10 minutes. Have each child decorate their own monkey face with pizza sauce, pesto, cheese, pepperoni, veggies and any other favorite ingredients. Have the kids press their initials into the edge of the crust. Bake an additional 10 minutes and serve. Set out an example for them to get ideas to start. Use pizza sauce for the oval mouth or jowl area, pepperoni for the eyes, string cheese to create a smile, etc.
- Monkey Food: Set out bananas and other fruit around the party as decorations and quick snack food if the kids get hungry.
