First up this day was making giraffes. This was definitely a product-based art project, which isn’t very like me, but I though they had a bit of merit in the motor skills needed for their construction, and plus, turning them into marionettes gave the kids a type of toy they’d never explored before! We worked on them in stages throughout the day to make sure the paint and glue had sufficient time to dry. I also brought in my hot glue gun on Friday and we did giraffe surgery, making the marionette handle a bit sturdier and making sure googly eyes and limbs were all secure.

Next, we went on a little safari. I would’ve loved to preset this one but since it was going to be spread out in a park with a bit of traffic, I decided to just ask my kiddos to give me a couple minutes to set it up when we got there. While they waited at the side of the field, I scattered the savanna animals around. Then, I gave each of them a paper where they could write down what they found on their safari, and how many. They had fun running around for a while looking for all the critters, and once they were finished exploring, we went and collected them all (bonus activity!)

After spending a few minutes on the next steps of our giraffes, I set up an elephant “race,” minute-to-win-it style. I got the bowling pins out of their set, and had a pair of grey tights with a tenning ball in the foot for a trunk. We put the waist of the tights over our heads and used the trunk to knock down the pins.

Our final activity of the day was “Mr. Hippopotamus.” I’d found a write up of the yard game “Mr. Crocodile” online but honestly, I just didn’t like the chant. I changed the animal (I needed another syllable) and made it a call-and-response:

“Mr. Hippopotamus, can we cross the river?”

(The Hippo answers yes or no - if “yes,” everyone can cross safely, and the game repeats. If no…)

“Mr. Hippopotamus, what’s your favourite colour?”

At this point it’s the same as the crocodile game. The hippo chooses a colour, anyone wearing that colour can cross safely, and once they’re across, everyone else has to run for it! Whoever is tagged becomes the next Hippopotamus.