Wild Kratts Birthday Party!

Wild Kratts is one of the kids’ favourite TV shows. They love learning about the animals. They have often made their own creature-power suits and played in the yard. I was not surprised when Daniel asked for a Wild Kratts birthday party!

Here’s what we did. We got a lot of the ideas from Pinterest, combined them together and came up with our own version of Wild Kratts.

Creature-Power Suits:

My mom made each guest a black vest from black cotton. It was a tank-top style.
We cut circles out of craft foam and glued them to the vest for the paw print.
Under that, my mom sewed one half of a piece of Velcro. This is where the creature-power discs would go.

Creature-Power Discs:

We found a set of printable discs through Pinterest.

We knew which animals we wanted to use, so printed off these discs. We changed some of the animals by finding animal silhouettes and pasting them over top of the animals in this printout.

We printed the discs off on colour paper, cut them out, and glued them to craft foam circles of the same size.

On the back, we glued a strip of Velcro (the opposite to what was sewn on the vest).

The Party!

1. Beaver Dams: When the guests arrived, we had them try out their animal skills by building a beaver dam using pretzel sticks and frosting. Every creation was completely different!

2. Observational Scavenger Hunt: Daniel can up with this activity. I took about 30 of his stuffed animals and hid them around the yard in areas as close to their natural habitat as possible (birds in trees, beaver by the stick pile, etc). I made a list of all the animals. Guests were divided into pairs and had to check off the animals once they found them.

3. Creature-Power Suits: Having completed these first two activities “proved” that they were worthy of their creature-power suits. Each guest received a vest with the “beaver” disc attached.

4. Butterfly: To become a butterfly, the kids had to get in a sleeping bag and inch their way across the lawn (like a caterpillar). Then, their team wrapped them up like a cocoon (in toilet paper) and then they could break free and flap away like a butterfly. This was not a race, but there were two lines of kids going at once. Then, they earned their “butterfly” disc. They traded in their “beavers” for the “butterflies”. I put their “beavers” immediately into their treat bags.

5. Elephant: My husband came up with this contraption where he duct taped a stick to the hose of the ShopVac. Kids had to pick up a golf ball with the vacuum and drop it in the bucket. It’s a lot harder than it looks! They earned their “elephant” discs, and once again I traded their current disc and put it in their treat bags.

6. Bat: We talked about how bats move using echolocation. Each child was blindfolded, spun around, and had to find their way to the bench. When they were going the wrong way, the kids would say “beep” slowly. When they were going the right direction and getting close, they would “beep” faster. This earned them their “bat” disc.

7. Cheetah: We actually found this game about 10 minutes before the party started! Most of the activities on the other websites were for children under the age of 5. However, these kids were all 6-9 years old.

We found a game called Cheetahs and Cheetals from India. This is the best explanation of the game.

In India, a Cheetal is a deer. Of course the Cheetahs chase the Cheetals, so this game was very appropriate. It is similar to a game called Crows and Cranes that we played as children. After a few rounds, and when the kids were tired, they earned the Cheetah badge.

It was very important to us (and especially Daniel) that none of the games were races, timed, or had a winner. These activities all worked perfectly for that!

Cake:

Daniel had done a school project on the platypus and therefore requested a platypus cake! We found instructions for “Disney’s Perry the Platypus” and used that. I baked the cake in 2 loaf pans. The second cake we just covered with chocolate frosting and put on 2 marshmallows for eggs – as the nest. As per usual, I bake the cake, and David decorates it!

Treat Bags:

I am a big fan of paper bags for treat bags! On the back, I (tried to) draw a different animal and wrote the child’s name on the bag.

Inside were three other creature-power discs. These ideas are based on some from this website.

1. Hippopotamus: Our Compliments makes a soft cookie treat called Hippo Hugs. I made a hippo creature-power disc and taped it to the Hippo Hug, along with some facts about hippos.
2. Fish: Taped to a packet of Goldfish, I taped a fish creature-power disc along with some facts about bass.
3. Fireflies: Taped to a glowstick was a creature-power disc of a firefly and some facts.
These fact sheets are here.

Finale:

At the end of the party, after the games, presents and cake, I set the treat bags around the room. The kids could then change their creature-power discs at will, and have some time for free play. We had several kids building dams with sticks with their beaver discs, and some running around as cheetahs. The imaginative play was wonderful!

Although there was quite a bit of prep with the vests and the discs, it was an easy party to orchestrate and the kids had a lot of fun! We could have done a lot more animal games and activities, but would have been cutting out discs forever!

Overall, the kids loved the party, and it was a great success!