Thanks for choosing a fun and learning party for your child.

This Rhino Party Kit for Kids has all the instructions (and most of the resources) you need for a party for your primary school age child (some advanced preschoolers enjoy it too.)

Why “Save the Rhino”?

Rhinos in Africa are in serious trouble. Each year hundreds are brutally killed by poachers for their horns. There are only around 15,000 rhino remaining so their survival is truly threatened. Three things everyone, including children, can do to help save the rhino are:

Find out what’s happening to the rhino

Share what you learn

Make a donation to Nikela’s rhino project or the rhino organization of your choice.

[More information about the race to Save the Last Rhino]

Let’s have a wild time!

Included in your Save the Rhino Party kit are ideas, instructions and templates. Some are on this page and others you can easily link to or download…

Invitations
Games / Activities
Prizes
Cake
Food
Goodie Bags

Party at a Glance

Party Length: Can be short or long (45 minutes to two hours)

Location: Your house or local community center

Arrival activity: Frank and the Rhino Horn Coloring Book

Read/View: Dr. Seuss-like Tale, “Frank and the Rhino Horn”

Discussion: What’s happening to the rhino

Activities: Choose from a number of activities based on some old favorites on our ‘Save the Rhino’ Kids’ Activities

Treats: Be creative, traditional or use our suggestions

Open Gifts: Be traditional or instead of gifts ask guests to donate to save the last rhino

Party Favors: Choose from our list of simple or more fancy ideas.

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Things to do before the party

Choose games from the ‘Save the Rhino’ Kids’ Party Activities list.

Decide on your food and drinks (some ideas are included below)

It’s best to have everything ready to go before the guests arrive.

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The PARTY

As guests arrive:

Provide each child with a copy of Frank and the Rhino Horn to cut out and make their very own copy of the storybook. For those who finish with this part before all the guests have arrived pull out the crayons and let them color their book.

When all guests are there:

Gather the kids together and read Frank and the Rhino Horn or show them the video, which ever you prefer.

After the reading/viewing tell the children that this party is special because each child is going to learn how to help save the rhino, and get that good feeling in their heart just like Frank did.

Suggested first game:

The ‘How Does the Rhino…’ (see the ‘Save the Rhino’ Kids’ Party Activities) activity to learn some basic facts about how the rhino hears, sees and smells and what makes it vulnerable to poachers.

Discussion:

Show children the image of the rhino and the dinosaur, or get figurines at your local toy store.

Ask the children

What’s the same between the rhino and the dinosaur?
- Large, tails, herbivores, no fur, etc.
What’s different between them?
- Amongst others be sure to end with… the dinosaur is extinct and the rhino will soon be if we don’t stop the poachers.

Option: Share the 10 Essential Facts About Rhino (compliments of SavingRhinos.org) or refer to Frank and the Rhino Horn and…

FYI: There are several different ways people are trying to save the rhino

Sanctuaries (big parks)that try to protect the rhino
Laws that punish people who kill rhino for their horn
Telling people in Asia that rhino horns are not medicine
Drone aircraft to scare away or catch the poachers
law enforcement training to help fight the poachers better

Discuss ways even kids can help the rhino

make a video (telling people why they shouldn’t kill the rhino for its horn)
create drawings (shared via social networks by adult)
write letters (sent to OMG letter writing project started by two children, Olivia and Carter)
lemonade stand for the rhino
have a rhino party

Find out about Olivia and Carter

Take a couple of minutes to watch Olivia (10) and Carter (12) being interviewed on the Steve Harvey Show. (Begin at minutes 4:46 until Steve awards them his Hero T-Shirts)

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List of Activities:

Choose any number of games from the ‘Save the Rhino’ Kids’ Party Activities list to reinforce the need for protecting the rhino from poachers.

A Word of caution: Avoid piñatas with this theme as neither one representing a rhino or a poacher would seem appropriate.

Rhino Bucks:

Print off enough Rhino Bucks so that the children can earn or win these for each game. Decide ahead of time how many you are going to handout because at the end of the activity you will be making a donation to NIKELA’s Save the Last Rhino or Stop the Rhino Poachers. This gives the children a chance to actually help protect the rhino in a real way.

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Invitations

We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible. To create your ‘Save the Rhino’ Kids’ Party invitations. You should be able to fill in the blanks, drag in your child’s photo and print. Be sure to click the “Enable Editing” button.

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Food, Cake, Gifts:

End with food, cake and presents. If you have an especially motivated child, you might want to suggest having him/her ask the party guests to bring a donation in lieu of presents.

Food

● PB&J’s, as they can help the rhino through the PB&J club!

● No eating the Rhino, but make food look like what Rhinos would eat

● veggie tray it’s what rhino’s eat!

● only for the bold- Rhino Poop (brownie bites)

● rhino raisins

● white rhino delights (powdered doughnuts)

● Kid friendly african cuisine

● Make a bunch of food, and have the kids guess which ones the rhinos would eat and which ones they wouldn’t.

Cake ideas

● Make the cake look like the landscape where Rhino’s live, then put a few, plastic, non-edible rhinos or other wildlife on top. you can even use broccoli for trees

Prizes

● Instead of giving prizes hand out ‘Rhino Bucks’ that can be redeemed for actually donating to help Save the Last Rhino.

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Party Favors/Goodie Bags:

Something to consider:

Instead of sending the kids home with a goodie bag with $5-10 of little cheap things that will just get lost, why not spend $5-10 on a present for each child that might last longer and make a bigger difference?

For example:

• A book on rhinos

• A little rhino figurine

• A rhino magnet for their fridge

• A small rhino stuffed animal to take care of themselves

These small gifts might make a bigger impact long term than the little prizes that would be lost or thrown away after a week or two. Look at the links below for such gifts.

1. Tons of Rhino and wildlife stuff can be found at the Jungle Store.

2. Endangered Species Bath fun.

If you still want to go with goodie bags, here are some ideas:

● rhino figurines

● poster of the rhino

● hand out with a map with stickers of the different kinds of rhinos, match where they live

● little work book with crosswords, word finds, and other fun activities

● animal stickers

● rhino advocate badge

● nikela car sticker for their bedroom window or parents car.

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ALTERNATIVE

Don’t want to make the whole party about Rhinos, but still want to make an impact?

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Have guests color and read “Frank and the Rhino Horn”
Have the prizes be Rhino Bucks
Take some time to write letters to save the Rhino.
Serve PB&J’s and explain the PB&J club (Donating the savings when you take a PB&J instead of buying lunch once a month)

Or a combination like this:

When guests are arriving, start them off coloring ‘Frank and the Rhino Horn’ When everyone is there read the book (you can download and read via Kindle on your iPad), and explain tell the kids they are going to help Frank not stink by earning Rhino Bucks for every game played and donating it, or by writing a quick letter to save the Rhino.

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