Recently, my sister Mary asked me to help her with a project, she was planning a dance for her kids' elementary school, and the themes was going to be "Safari." My nephews are in 3rd grade, and anyone who has been to an elementary school "dance" knows that there is a lot of running around and general chaos, and not much dancing.
So, I got an idea, to make a display for the event that would really drive home the idea of the SAFARI theme as the kids (and parents) entered the school for the dance. Of course, we know enough NOT to ask "permission" of any kind from the school first, after all they might very well say NO or start citing some irritating fire codes.......and everyone knows it is much better to beg for forgiveness later than ask for permission up front. We wanted it to look like a Safari Hut type thing so we put bamboo over the doors......(Principal agreed it was better that we had not asked first LOL)
Mary had the idea to borrow our Mom's Subaru and turn it into a Safari tour jeep for the evening. We set up a folding table and a map, note the monkey who has escaped his net on the roof. The zebra stripe was also cut from a plastic table cloth and taped on, much to Mom's dismay.
As for my contribution...I envisioned a display in which safari animals were all peeking out of jungle foliage, maybe including a sign of some kind. I started planning out the animals and I got some foam core at Michael's.
I painted 4 animal heads; lion. tiger, giraffe and elephant and a sign.....I also picked up two rolls of kraft paper and some green spray paint, light green and dark green. In my spare time, while watching TV, I cut out leaves of various sizes and hoped they looked Jungle-ish......
On the night of the "dance", I started with a heap of empty cardboard cartons. I stacked them up to about 6 feet and taped the heck out of them so they would be solid and stable. Then I wrapped the whole heap using 2 dark green plastic tablecloths. (Dollar Tree!) I then placed my HEADS and used the paper leaves to cover the wrapped boxed to create my JUNGLE or as I came to call it, my SHRUB.
That's me on the L and my other sister Ellen on the right, she helped me put it all together!!!!
We were soooo witty, we put a safari hat on the giraffe and a parrot on the lion's head. I got the parrots from the party store, they were just those puffy paper decoration-type things.
This is Mary, it was really her project and she did a great job, the dance has been called the best one EVER in the history of dances at the Riley Ave school......
Principal Enos, Mary, and Mrs Grimm.
Kids were actually dancing with their animal print visors on.
Oriental Trading. Every kid got one.
Must have been a HIT since the principal did not want to throw it out, so it sits in the lobby of the school just outside the main office. At least for now.....until the next dance theme comes along!!!!
THANK YOU Melinda for inviting me to be a GUEST BLOGGER!!!!!!
Thanks, Jo - I love it! Your idea and pictures were so terrific I had to have you share. I love your extras, too - the jungle-themed Subaru and Mary's Jungle Guide outfit. When's the next dance?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the typo there. Should be THEME not THEMES in the beginning. LOL
ReplyDelete