Reptile Party
By Shelly Radic

Slither and slide, jump and wiggle. There’s never a dull moment when the party’s theme is reptiles.

Invitations
Cut a spiral out of green construction paper. Round the outside end to create a snake’s head and the inside end to create the tail. Glue on googly eyes and a red felt tongue. Write party information around the spiral.

Decorations
Drape a green or brown fish net across the wall or ceiling. Attach plastic and cloth snakes, frogs, lizards, turtles and other reptiles. Hang green streamers around the room for a jungle effect.

Food
Green Gatorade, Snake Sandwich (small submarine sandwiches arranged like a snake with olive eyes and red pepper tongue), Ants on a Log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins), Snake Cake (Bake two Bundt cakes. Cut each in half and arrange on a cake board to resemble a snake. Round out one end to serves as the head. Cut the other end to a point to serve as the tail. Frost the entire snake green. Use large red M & Ms for eyes and a red fruit roll as a tongue. Dot the remainder of the snake with mini M & Ms.)

Activities

• Make Snake Snacks — Mix Gummi snakes, insects and small M & Ms (snake eggs) in a bag labeled Snake Snacks.
• Gecko Headbands — Make copies of the outline of a large gecko for each guest. Have guests color with color change markers. Cut out the gecko and attach to a construction paper headband.
• Reptile Round-Up – Hide small plastic reptiles around the room and challenge guests to find one of each reptile.
• Slither and Jump — Divide into two or three teams and challenge guests to slither across the room like a snake and then return to the other side by jumping like a frog.
• Lizard Tail Tag – Divide into two teams, the green lizards and the orange lizards. Tuck a green or orange lizard tail into each child’s waistband. The object is to capture the other team’s tails while protecting your own.
• Leap Frog — Organize guests into partners and have a leap frog race around the room.
• Plastic Frog Jumpers – Arrange guests at one end of an area with a hard surface. Give each child a plastic jumping frog. Challenge guests to jump their frogs from one end of the area to the other.
• Croc Toss — Create a crocodile from a long box with lid. Cover the box with green paper, prop up one end of the lid and cut jagged teeth and glue on big red eyes. Ask children to see how many raisins they can get into the croc’s mouth in thirty seconds. Do this several times, always trying to beat the previous record.
• Reptile show – Hire a reptile handler to share reptile collection with the children.

Favors
Snake Snacks, plastic reptiles, reptile glasses