Survivor Party

by Maya M.

For my daughter's 5th-grade send off celebration the theme was a Survivor party. Here are some of the highlights...

BEFORE THE PARTY

Starting a week before the event, each team (classroom) got daily "tree mail" outside their classrooms giving them clues/hints as to what the event challenges would be. Each team picked a color and name (they picked Apumaloo, Electric Dolphins, and The Newts) and they received "buffs" of their team color that had both the Survivor Logo and "I Survived Bonny Slope Elementary" on them. They made posters to represent their teams and on challenge day they would walk behind the posters as a team introduction.

DECORATIONS

The party was decorated to create an island feel. All of the tables had grass skirting and bouquets of tropical flowers and palm leaves. Everyone was give a plastic lei and these were also scattered around on tabletops. In one area of the party there was a large backdrop mural set up for photos that had the Survivor logo surrounded by fishing net, flowers, and grass skirting. In another there was a large tiki totem that someone donated for the event. All around the party area there were tiki torches (with paper flames) that were meant to look like the ones the players took to tribal council. Everything looked great!


AT THE PARTY

On the day of the party the kids kicked off the celebration by putting on warrior-style face paint. They then walked to the main outside area holding their team signs. The first challenge was the obstacle course. The kids would have to run the course and then tag the next person...the first team to finish won that challenge. The second challenge was the food challenge. Set up on three separate tables were food items hidden under upside down cups. The labels on the cups said such things as "squirrel tail," "dirt," and "bat droppings"...when in actuality they were items that looked like the labels but really were things like junior mints, ground-up oreos and beef jerky. Each child would have to eat the item then show the monitor that there was nothing left in their mouth and then the next person could go. The first team to finish all the items won. The third and last challenge was a puzzle challenge. Kids partnered up and one person had to wear a blindfold. Ahead of them were 14 chairs with bags (three bags per chair, each one the color of each team). The partner that wasn't blindfolded had to guide the blindfolded person to each chair to collect the bag with the puzzle pieces inside. As soon as all the bags were collected they could start on the puzzle. The first team to finish their puzzle won. One team did win 2 out of 3 challenges so they won the game of Survivor (but no one got voted off :)!

At the end of the challenges there was a bbq and a DJ playing music, and the kids signed yearbooks and did karaoke. Everyone had a blast!