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Survive!

Materials

• Situation Worksheet

A lesson plan that gets students thinking about objects and how they can be used in the context of surviving in the wilderness. It's often used as an ice-breaking activity or a party game but here I've tried to make it very simple for ESL learners. It can be used as a follow up to the Machines, Tools, and Inventions lesson plan which teaches the vocabulary of simple machines and devices.

Warm Up

Ask students if they ever go camping or hiking. What are the dangers and what do they need to survive those dangers? For example, how do they stay warm? How do they keep dangerous animals away? How do they carry food with them? How do they know where they are? Another great warm up is Desert Island Disks.

The Game

Now put the students in small groups. If you have quite a few students who are experienced outdoorsmen, break them up so that they are spread out in more than one group. Then hand out the Situation Worksheet. Give students some time to understand the situation and ask questions. Make sure they know all the words and try to emphasize that they have nothing else with them. If they ask, tell them that cellphones don't work and their wallet fell out of their pocket and burned up and so on. Give them about 20 minutes to decide which objects are important and how each thing could be used.

Then bring the class back together and go through the list of objects one by one, asking each group how important it is and how it might be used to survive. Try to get them to be as creative as possible.

Some Possible Answers

Ball of String: Good to tie the canvas together to make a tent. Might be used to attach people together so no one panics and runs off. Can also use it to hang food in trees so bears don't get it. Can be used as kindling for a fire.
Large Knife Can be used to cut firewood, to defend against animals, to cut up animals for food, to dig a hole for a fire or for a toilet, to pry open the can of shortening. Dangerous if anyone goes crazy however.
Pistol To defend against animals or to hunt for food, to start a fire, to make noise if they see a rescue team. Dangerous if anyone goes crazy
can of shortening The shortening is good grease for a fire, it's also fattening food or insulation rubbed on the skin. The can lid can be used as a reflector to attract attention. The can itself can be used to store water or food. Or as a cooking pot to cook or melt snow.
Newspapers To read if you get bored, to help start a fire, to put inside clothes for warmth, to sit on to keep your clothes clean.
Cigarette Lighter Some students will think it is useless without gas, but it still makes a spark which can be caught by the newspaper, the string, or some kindling
Extra shirt and pants Clothes to keep warm, fuel for a fire, material for a tent (cut it up with the knife), maybe bright colors to signal a rescue team. Something to sleep on.
Canvas With the knife and string you can make a decent shelter or tent. You can sit on it to keep off the cold snow.
Air map To sit on, as the wall of a tent. Trying to locate where you are would be almost impossible since you don't know the exact route of the plane and the air map will only show things clearly visible from the air so small villages or buildings would be ignored.
Vodka Good to start a fire. In small amounts to calm people down. Dangerous if people get drunk and crazy. Alchohol also lowers your body temperature.
Compass Reflects the sun. Again you don't know where you are or where the nearest village is, so using it to try to walk somewhere is probably dangerous.
Chocolate Bar Food, something to make sculptures with if you get bored.

Follow Up

Once you have gone over each group's suggestions for how to use each item, remind them that in this situation it is cold, they are in the middle of nowhere, and that when the plane doesn't arrive, a search team will be sent out to find them. Now ask them to pick the top 5 most important objects and why they chose those items.

If you didn't do it as a warm up, Desert Island Disks makes a nice closer.

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