Madagascar Birthday Party Ideas

Madagascar birthday party is an absolute great theme for kids of a wide age range.

Invite them to turn into animals and have some fun at you special celebration!

Resources:

Decorations

Choose such tropical colors as green, orange, yellow and blue for your Madagascar party decorations. Use your imagination and have as much fun as you can creating special party environment.

Download and print images of Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the Hippo, Plotting Penguins and other characters. Enlarge the images and tape them to the fence to mark your party spot. Hang colorful balloons to light posts and other fixtures. Play Madagascar theme music in the background.

Create a balloon arch (looking like a zoo entrance) by tying colorful balloons to a kite string (about 12" apart). Next, secure the ends of the string to the ground with dowels on both sides of the walkway (so the guests have to walk through the arch to enter the yard). Cover the trees with green paper streamers (for vines). Set up blown-up palm tree standees (available from party stores). Post a sign that says "Welcome to Madagascar Birthday Party!"

Decorate the walls of your house with theme posters. Draw a map showing the "infamous trip" from New York City Zoo to Africa. Spread out animal plush toys around the room. Use some more of "tropical decorations" (e.g., pictures of palm trees and wild animals, green paper streamers, theme-related standees, etc.) to fill the space.

You can get "Wobble Penguin" toys (available at party stores), and set them to amuse young kids. Hang a personalized "Happy Birthday" banner in the center of the room. Cut out animal footprints from construction paper and scatter them around the house.

Cover your Madagascar birthday party table with a theme cloth. Place Madagascar Mylar balloon in the middle of the table for a centerpiece. Have theme cups, plates and napkins at each place setting. Tie helium balloons to the backs of the chairs.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities

*Jungle Animal Transformation: As your guests arrive, transform them into little animals with face paints. If the kids are old enough, they can decorate themselves in front of a mirror. In that case, provide pictures of various jungle animals for inspiration.

*Madagascar Coloring Pages: Hand out Madagascar activity books for your guests along with crayons, markers, etc. Invite them to color those pages while waiting for the other Madagascar birthday party guests to arrive.

*Mask Decorating Activity: Children love becoming animals and this activity will be an amazing experience for them. You can get Safari Mask Craft kit from a party store. Have the kids design their own masks that they can wear during the party.

Favors

For your Madagascar party favors, give out such items as zoo animal finger puppets, bubble solutions, plush toys, bean bags, toy binoculars, jungle animal figurines, Madagascar sticker sheets and blowouts.

Madagascar Birthday Party Games

*Mada-Who?: Before the Madagascar birthday party, write the names of animals from the movie on strips of masking tape, so each child will have one. (For younger kids, use stickers or pictures instead.)

At game time, attach a name on each guest's back without them seeing the animal. Kids must try to guess which character is on their back by asking other children questions that can be answered "yes" or "no." (Animals to choose from include hippo, zebra, giraffe, lion, penguin, lemur, chimpanzee, fossa, etc.)

*Fossa Alert: Pick one or more players to be fossa and everyone else is a lemur. When the fossa hear the command "Feeding Time", they must try to catch as many lemurs as they can. When lemurs get caught, they must go to a designated area called "the feeding pen," where they must stand still with their legs spread apart.

To be rescued, one of their lemur-friends has to crawl through the captured player's legs. Keep playing the game until everyone has been caught, or it's time to move to the next activity.

*Pin the Tail on Alex: Play the traditional "Pin-the-Tail" game with a Madagascar party twist. Draw a large lion on the poster board (or enlarge picture of Alex and glue it on). Cut out tail shapes from black construction paper. Write guests' initials and put double-sided tape on the tails.

At game time, blindfold the kids one by one, spin them around and get them to stick their "tails" on Alex where they belong. Give small prizes for everyone's effort.

*Munching Melmans: You'll need an apple with a stem for each child to play this Madagascar birthday party game.

Attach a string to the stem of the apple and hang it from a tree or a furniture fixture. Get the kids to bite on and eat their apples just like Melman the Giraffe would. (The apples should hang low enough for the children to bite on them.)

*Marty's Mural: Invite the kids to create a lush, green jungle mural like the one Marty daydreams by every day.

Tape a wide sheet of butcher paper on the lower portion of the wall so the kids can reach. Spread out pictures of Madagascar characters or jungle animals for ideas. Hand out paints, markers and other decorative items to your Madagascar birthday party gang to paint their masterpieces.

*Lemur Limbo: Lemurs love to dance and play, so this game is perfect for Madagascar party celebration.

Play some upbeat music. Have two helpers hold limbo stick. Line up the kids, and have each one pass under the stick feet first while bending backwards. Once everyone has had a chance to pass under the limbo stick, lower it and have everyone pass under again. If any child touches the stick or falls, then he or she goes out of the game and receives a prize.

*Grand Central Station Hideout: "Madagascar" zoo animals have run off to get Marty at Grand Central Station. Kids must help find all the animals before they get caught.

Before the party, hide zoo animal figurines around the house and yard. Give each child a small paper bag and set them loose to find the animals. Encourage the guests to trade animals after the hunt, if they wish.

*Zebra, Zebra, Lion: Play traditional "Duck, Duck, Goose" game with a Madagascar birthday party twist.

*Jungle Parade: Before the party, tape a "paw print" trail (poster board cutouts) on the floor around your house.

At game time, have the kids line up behind the birthday child (wearing their masks and face paint and/or having their stuffed animals). Get them to march around the house following the paw prints. You can play some jungle music (or Madagascar Movie soundtrack) to accompany the little "animals". This is a great opportunity to take lots of pictures!

*Zoo Trip: For an extra special adventure, take your Madagascar birthday party guests on a field trip to a zoo. Call the zoo in advance to check if they have the animals from the movie, and visit those first.

Madagascar Birthday Cakes:

*Phil & Mason Chimp Cake: For this Madagascar birthday party cake, you'll need 1 cake mix, one 16-oz container of ready-made chocolate frosting, ball cake pan (available from a party store), chocolate sprinkles, 2 Hostess� Cupcakes, 1 Hostess� Snowball, 1 large marshmallow (cut in half for the eyes), 1 tube of black writing gel.

Bake cake in ball-shaped pan according to package directions. Cool and place it in the center of the cake board. Slice 1" piece off the end of each cupcake. Then place a cupcake on the top of each side of the monkey face as ears.

Frost the chimp cake with the chocolate frosting. Next cover the entire cake with chocolate sprinkles to give the monkey a "fur" coat. Add the Snowball as the nose and mouth, and then the marshmallow eyes. Using black writing gel, make pupils. Draw a smile across the "face."

*Madagascar Cake: Bake a round or rectangular cake. Write "Happy Birthday" message with decorator gel, and top the cake with jungle animal cake toppers (available at party stores).

*Gloria the Hippo Cake: Bake two 9" round cakes. Stack the cakes on top of each other. Using Gloria's picture as a guide, draw an outline of her face on the cake. Next fill it with blue or gray frosting. Finally, outline facial features in black color using white icing for the eyes.

Madagascar Birthday Party Food Ideas:

*Alex's Pizzas: Your Madagascar birthday party guests will roar with delight when they create mini pizzas with Alex's happy face on them. You'll need English muffin (split in half), pizza sauce, toppings (sliced pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, etc.) and cheese slices.

Give each kid a muffin half and ask everyone to spread on some pizza sauce. Invite them to decorate a lion face using pizza toppings. Show children how to use a butter knife to cut cheese slices into triangle shapes for lion mane pieces, and little strips for whiskers.

Then teach the kids how to arrange the triangles around the outer rim of the muffin half. Pepperoni, olives and mushrooms can be used for the eyes, ears and nose. Bake the pizzas at 375�F for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese melts.

*Plotting Penguin Cupcakes: For this Madagascar birthday party recipe, you'll need a cupcake mix, white frosting, yellow decorator gel and round chocolate cookies.

Bake enough cupcakes for all the guests and frost them white. At one end, use decorator gel to make penguin's eyes and a beak (upside-down triangle). Then divide cookies in half for the penguin wings, and place cookies halves on top, flat side facing in. Finally, use gel to draw feet.

*Phil & Manson Banana Pops: You'll need bananas, Popsicle� sticks, plastic freezer bags, yogurt or warm chocolate sauce.

Peel bananas and cut them in half across the middle. Push a Popsicle stick through the flat end, until it's inserted at least half-way through each banana. Place in freezer bags until party time. Dip frozen banana pops into yogurt or chocolate sauce, and serve.

*Jungle on a Log: Cut celery into 5" lengths and fill with peanut or almond butter. Put some raisins (ants) on top. Let children place a few animal crackers in the peanut butter so they stand up. Then devour!

*Seaweed-on-a-Stick Suckers: For the following Madagascar birthday party recipe, you'll need hard candies in different shades of green (bulk candy stores are great sources for this), lollypop sticks, plastic freezer bag and a hammer.

Put candy in the plastic bag and crush into about 1/4" chunks with the hammer. Invite the kids to design their own "seaweed" by placing candy chunks together on foil-covered cookie sheets. (Keep each "seaweed" pile about 3" apart.)

Bake in a preheated oven at 350�F until candy melts nicely together (about 5-10 minutes). Remove from the oven, then immediately press end of each lollipop stick into bottom of "seaweed." Cool and serve.

*Melman Munchies (pretzels, cheese balls)
*Gloria Jiggles (Jell-O Jigglers�)
*Lemur Lettuce (salad)
*Marty Stripes (fruit roll-ups)
*Penguin Poppers (mini corn dogs)

Madagascar Birthday Party Drink Ideas:

*Marty Milk Shakes: To prepare this Madagascar birthday party drink, you'll need six 6-oz glasses of milk, 2-3 scoops of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, 12 Oreo� cookies (crushed).

Combine milk, cookie crumbs and ice cream in a blender. (For thicker shakes, add additional ice cream.) Whirl until smooth. Then pour into glasses, top with cookie crumbs and let the kids dig in.

*King Julian Cooler: Start by pouring green punch in glasses and placing them in front of your guests. Then add a few of Pop Rocks� candies into each glass. Watch as ordinary beverage turns into a steamy swamp!