Any fan of Survivor Micronesia, Palau, China, Guam, Samoa, or the other seasons of the reality show will enjoy this island survival party theme. In each episode of the show Survivor, teams and individual survivors are pitted against each other in games of skill, smarts, or endurance.
Here are ideas for Survivor challenges, fun for guests at a party that would make host TV Jeff Probst proud.
Preparing for Survivor Reality TV Show Challenges / Party Games
For all games, divide guests into "tribes" that are manageable in size. Give each tribe its own color and name. On Survivor, contestants wear colored "buffs." Buffs could be sewn out of Spandex or another fairly stretchy material, or other choices are bandanas, T-shirts, Hawaiian leis, or face paint.
Fast, Fun, and Easy Survival Games
- Treasure Hunt with paper clues or maps: Set up a hunt for each team.
- Gross-Out Gummy “Bug” Eating Challenge: If guests refuse to eat real bugs (as survivors sometimes must on the TV show), there are gross-looking candy worms, spiders, cockroaches etc. with which to torture guests. Who can clear their plate first?
- Regular relay races, perhaps passing a shell or tiki.
- Sand Hunt: Buy a bag of play sand. Fill a bucket with the sand and lots of dollar store plastic shells or "jewels." Give each contestant 30 seconds to dig for treasure. The one with the most wins.
Fun Challenges Requiring More Set-up and Time to Play:
- At The End of My Rope game: Set up before guests arrive (and read through all directions before beginning). Take a huge roll of heavy string (heavy enough that it will not break) and cut it into long, long sections of equal length. Be sure to tie the starting end of the string to something stable, so it wouldn't get lost. One at a time (or more, if there are a few people to help set up the game), begin weaving the strings around, under, over and through different obstacles. In the end, the area set up for the game should look like a giant spider web sort of thing, with each teams' strings criss-crossing each other. To play the game, each team takes the beginning of a string. The object is to follow one's own team string, rolling it up as one goes, weaving through the maze of obstacles, competitors and other strings to the end of the trail. This can be played in relays of groups of two people holding hands, or as individuals, with a whistle being blown every minute to change team members.
- Water Balloon Fling Game: Make a target with scoring rings. Contestants fling water balloons at the target with slingshots. The team that scores the most points wins. This can be a small and close-up game or, with a bigger slingshot, a huge game held in an empty grassy area, beach, or parking lot. A big target could be spray-painted on a sheet.
- Ice Toes Challenge: Fill tubs (one for each team or tribe) with lots of ice, 100 marbles, and water. Contestants line up behind their team tub. Each team member is given 30 seconds to remove as many marbles as possible from the tub, using only their toes (brrr), before they switch with the next person. The first team to get all their marbles out of the tub wins.
Survivor Party Prize Ideas
- Franko's Maps' Palau Reef fish identification cards (Hawaii maps + Palau cards pictured below)
- Ultimate Survivor certificates
- Shell necklaces
- Tiki items
- Digital photo print of them competing
- A spa basket (sometimes given on the reality TV show)
Also see Fun Survivor Theme Birthday Party and Teen Birthday Party Fun Themes.
Janienne Jennrich - Janienne Jennrich, Topic Editor for Kids & Teen Parties and for Hair, is an award-winning freelance writer & webmaster.
