"Survivor" Team Challenges

Twice each school year, my classes do a week of team challenges. I call them “Survivor” weeks after the TV show. We do this on the first full week of school and on the first week after winter recess.

I’ve been doing this for about 8 years now. I’ve found it to be a really valuable way for me to establish, without a lot of lecturing, my standards for class behavior and serves as an introduction to character education.

Teaching the kids the value of teamwork is the obvious intent of this unit, but the actual benefits of it go much further than this. In a normal team game setting, the best athletes usually control the action. In Survivor, every child gets a chance to make a valuable contribution. This can give kids a great boost to their self-esteem and to their social standing.

For example, I once had one 3rd grade student who visibly flinched every time I called her name. She hated attention, always thought she was in trouble when I called on her and was the victim of bullying classmates.

By 5th grade her self-confidence had soared and she’d become an undisputed class leader. Her survivor experience wasn’t the sole reason for this, but it undoubtedly helped, for it seemed that she was always on the most successful team. Her ability to find creative, innovative solutions to challenges, and her willingness to share credit and accept fault was so pronounced that her teammates developed complete faith in her judgment.

Survivor works best with teams of 5 – 7 students. That usually translates into 3 teams for 3rd grade classes and 4 teams for 4th and 5th grade classes.

3rd grade students first experience Survivor with fairly simple to understand challenges like Pipeline or the Maze. I present the class with several challenges at once and let the teams complete them in any order.

See this slideshow for more details (click on pictures to enlarge):



4th and 5th grade classes are given one challenge per day. These are usually multiple part challenges. The first part is usually a physical challenge while the second part is a mental challenge. All four teams race to complete the challenge first. All challenges require teams to plan, communicate and cooperate for successful completion.

Here are some samples (see photo captions for challenge instructions):

A Knot Tying / Puzzle Challenge



Multiple Team Island Hopping



A Scooter Relay / Puzzle Challenge



A Maze / Tangram Challenge



Launcher Challenges



Travel Log Obstacle Course



Hope you can use some of these or that they inspire you to create your own.  They can take time to set up, but are well worth the time and effort.