I am a new teacher and I will teaching 6th grade. I have been trying to come up with a good theme. One that I figured I might be able to do is Survivor. I figured, if I change the motto, the rest could be simply a beach theme for the room. I was planning on going all out! I mean 3D bulletin boards, vines, and bamboo placed in the room. I was just wondering if this is a bad idea. Is Survivor not exactly the theme I should go for with 6th graders?

[JRichard]

I don't know about doing Survivor with 6th graders...I know most of my 7th graders watch it, so it might be OK. I think overall the show is OK, except that they allow cussing. If that's the worst on the show, though, honestly it's pretty good for TV today, I think.

As for the theme in general--Survivor is doing something new next season. They will not be on an island. They have decided to go to a distant, sparsely populated province of China! They will be around a lake of some kind, so there will still be water involved, but it will be more exotic I think--the area is known for its tigers and pandas!

It might be fun to incoporate that if you do decide to use Survivor--bamboo, pandas, tigers, big leaves, maybe some Chinese culture, etc.

HTH
Jenny

[madiouch]

Hi Rookie,
I think the Survivor Theme is perfect for 6th grade. I incorporated it into my 3/4 combo class this year and the kids LOVE it!!! I have trees everywhere, a Reader's Island, and monkeys (our mascot) hanging from the ceiling. We have an immunity idol and daily challenges. It is the best theme I've had so far. I got a lot of my ideas from searching the archives on this site, I suggest you do the same.

Have fun! I know your kids will.

[cherylhobbs]

I used this theme a couple of years back and my 6th grade class loved it. We did much of the same things they did on the show except doing a vote off. You can't do that but we did do something similar to the immunity challenge. This was done on Friday afternoon for the group that would have first in everything the next week. Immunity idol was their's for the week and they got to go early to break, lunch, PE, music, art, computer, etc... I had set that up early on with all the teachers and they knew the class with immunity would line up early and walk on over. It was great and they all loved it.
The art teacher helped the students make group torches from the bamboo ones you can buy at Wal~Mart or Dollar Stores and they were great. They made Banners from material I purchased really cheap and painted it in art also. I hung it above their tribes. They had really great names too.
It was fun and we had challenges when we went to recess between groups on the fields. They loved it! It was a chance to still the immunity idol for a day. WOW it was a challenge too!
Again, search the site for great ideas.
Have fun with it and make it challenging but not to overwhelming for yourself!

[cmpern]

I have done Survivor for two years and my class loved it. There are tons of things on the Oriental Merchandise website....I used their Luau party scene wall decorations for my bulletin board backing and hung fake vines from the ceiling and a bunch of tiki decorations. I used review games to get our "Sole Survivor" and had bulletin boards titled "Outwit" Survivor A's "Outplay" Extracurricular activities and "Outlast" our review game with the last survivor standing. I put a grass table skirt around my desk and used another grass table skirt for a curtain across my windows. It was a really fun theme. I hate to get something else but I am going to get the same students so I want to change it up.
Good luck....You will love teaching.