Island Survival: A Cooperative Game

/ emily.fintelman

Do you need a great cooperative game?

This one will sweep them away. I play Island Survival with year 4, 5, and 6s either at the beginning or end of the year and it is always a hit! They often ask for it again. It’s a great game that allows for problem solving, justification, reasoning, creativity and cooperation.

In Island Survival, students work in small groups to try and survive being marooned on an island through a story that unfolds piece by piece. They meet a series of challenges that require different types of thinking and ultimately aim to get off the island as a team.

For example, in one scenario, survival teams have access to a range of resources but a storm washes three away. They have to decide on and justify which ones they will lose in the storm. In another, they have to practically think about how they would respond to injuries in a group.

This game could be used on day one with your new students, after a holiday break, or at any time to reinforce teamwork skills or learning habits that you have been working on together.

You can use my slides above or make a copy for yourself to edit in Google Slides.

Edit: You can now also download the slides in Spanish, thanks to teacher Carrie Pishek Hope. 

How to Play

  • ROOM SET UP: Group tables together and remove chairs. This encourages active participation. Some unsettling or ambient jungle sounds will help set the scene.
  • MATERIALS: Each group gets a large sheet of butcher’s paper and textas. Use something as survival points like counters, play money or gold bottle caps (if you are using points).
  • TEAMS: Select (or have students select) survival teams that will work together for the whole task. 3-5 in a team works well.
  • SLIDES: Use my slides (above) that walk through the scenario step by step with instructions and timers. Feel free to make a copy of my Google Slides and adapt them  – and ham it up with some dramatic storytelling!
  • GAMEPLAY: Each slide will describe a new scenario that groups are presented with. Show and tell teams the information, what you expect from them and how much time they have. For example, at one point they need to design a shelter. You could briefly explain that you will only accept structurally sound designs that only utilise resources and tools they would have access to, then give teams 10 minutes to discuss and draw their designs. Walk around and give points and prompts while they work. Once the time is up move to the next task.

Variations

There are lots of variations you can use and with some creativity it is extremely easy to adapt the game to what you need. Some are:

    • SURVIVAL POINTS: The game works both with and without a point system. If you use it, teams can only leave the island (win) after earning a certain amount of points. They earn points by doing things like justifying all the items they decided would be washed away in a storm. In the slides, I have included notes about how I give out points however you can adjust it to suit your students. You can easily play it without having any kind of point system – just skip those slides.
    • PHYSICAL CHALLENGES: All the challenges I have included are discussion-based but to get the kids moving you could add others such as “Get two of your injured survivors (team members) across the oval without them having to touch the ground” or “Fit everyone in your team on one piece of falling cliff (a scrap of paper) without anyone falling off for 20 seconds”.
    • ONE HOUR or ONE MONTH: I usually play Island Survival over 1-2 hours however you could easily break it into smaller parts and play it over a longer amount of time to build on the skills used during the game.
  • I would love to know if you try Island Survival, how you use it, or if you have something better that is great for teamwork! Let me know what you try. The Island is your oyster…

Edit: If you are having trouble accessing the slides:

  • Make sure you have a Google Drive account and you are logged in. You will need a Google Drive account to get a copy of the slides.
  • Is your internet connection blocking the site? Try accessing the slides on a different internet connection.
  • Leave me a comment below or tweet me and I can get in touch to help.

48 thoughts on “Island Survival: A Cooperative Game”

  9. Hi,
    The survival idea looks amazing! I’d love to try it with my students at the start of the year!
    I’m received the same comment a that it won’t make a copy. I’m wondering could you email a link.

    Cheers,
    Suzie Wylie

    Like

    Reply

  11. This was so fun! My students really enjoyed, thank you. They want to do more, and I had to tell them I didn’t make it myself haha.

    Like

    Reply

  14. Pingback: 40 Cooperative Games For Kids - Teaching Expertise

  15. Pingback: 40 Cooperative Games For Kids - Teaching Expertise - Mario Worlds

  17. Thank you for that great idea. I am doing one challenge a day with my students as a warm up, and they have to do everything in French (I am a French teacher.) I am also giving points if the grammar is correct.

    Like

    Reply

  18. Emily: We are starting a coming of age unit in lit class with Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs, and I was trying to find a simple group survival challenge. I’m going to streamline this a LOT but the “what will you save?” slides are exactly what I need. Thanks for putting this out there and sharing so generously.

    Like

    Reply

  19. Pingback: 40 Cooperative Games For Kids – Teaching Expertise – Game Free Canada

  20. Pingback: 40 Cooperative Games For Kids - Teaching Expertise - USA NEWS FAST

  21. Pingback: 40 Cooperative Games For Kids – technology games

  22. Hi,
    The slides are great, but I can’t see how you allocate points…just how to lose them. Can you give me some advice please? What number of points do they start on and how can they go about earning them?
    Thanks

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Jon,
      Thanks for getting in touch. I don’t have a hard and fast point system as I change it every time I play, but I do outline a few ideas for points in the blog post, and there are details for how to give out points on each slide in the notes. You will need to download/make a copy of the slides for yourself to see these.
      Have fun!
      Emily

      Like

      Reply

  23. This is really a good game! I can see my students try to cooperate and discuss through the game (they are really talkative and usually don’t really listen to each other). It’s also fun to listen to children’s perspective of reasoning when they make choices in the game. My students love your game so much.

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Nancy,
      I’m so glad your students love this game and that it was valuable. Thanks for taking the time to tell me.
      Emily

      Like

      Reply

    • Hi Richard, as explained in the post, the physical challenges are a suggested variation that teachers could come up with themselves.
      Emily

      Like

      Reply

      • thank you. one more question. how do you distribute points. maybe I’m missing something but I thought it was mentioned about you explaining how points are earned on the slides. I didn’t see any. Do you recommend a point for each task? sorry for all the questions. this seems like a fun idea and I want to try this on my 5th graders next week. I’m thinking of having them sit in a new seating chart they may or may not like. if 40 points are earned, then the first team can choose where they want to sit and with who.

        Like

        Reply

        • Hi Richard,
          Thanks for getting in touch. I don’t have a hard and fast point system as I change it every time I play, but I do outline a few ideas for points in the blog post, and there are details for how to give out points on each slide in the notes. You can see the notes at the bottom on some pages. You will need to download/make a copy of the slides for yourself to see these.
          Have fun!
          Emily

          Like

          Reply

Leave a comment