Top 5 Animal Ideas for Making African Drums at Playgroup

Blog 19 - Activity ideas African SafariThere are loads of safari-themed activities you can enjoy at home or at playgroup but one of my favourites is African Drums!

First ask the children to decorate an A4 sheet of paper using one of the following themes:

  1. Elephant: crumpled paper painted grey
  2. Zebra: black stripes painted on white paper
  3. Giraffe: brown spots painted on yellow paper
  4. Cheetah: small black spots painted on tan paper
  5. Rhinoceros: painted grey

Wrap the decorated paper around a clean, dry aluminum can and stick the ends together with sticky tape.

Next ask the children to sit in a circle with their ‘drums’ and hand out pencils and/or dowel as drum sticks!

Adults can start by clapping hands and helping younger children to tap on their drum to the beat!

Note: If you don’t have drink cans, you can make quiet drums by decorating a paper plate, and use plastic straws for drumsticks.

If you are having a safari-themed playgroup session try one of our other ideas:

Elephant Conga Line

In this game, children walk like an elephant on all four legs, trying to keep their balance while lifting a front leg and a back leg. If they want to work together – try making a line of ‘elephants’ and walk around in a circle as a group.

Scent Hunt

Talk about the way lions use their sense of smell and then place some small containers of water around the room. Add a few drops of scented oils to the containers – ie. lavender, strawberry or peppermint essence – don’t forget to leave some unscented – and then let the children pretend to be lions on the hunt by crawling around, and use their noses to find the scented water!

Little Things …

Want more Play Ideas for home or playgroup – search our online now or call the Hotline on 1800 171 882 and ask to speak with a Development Officer.

Kath is a mum of three who works part time and enjoys writing and catching up with other stressed out mums in her spare time. Usually she’s racing against the clock to make her boys (+ husband) arrive anywhere on time and feels quite the talented mother when two out of the three make it out of the house with shoes on!