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Number five, skills for life

Learn the survival essentials needed on an outdoor adventure with a game of bingo.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • Scissors
  • Access to a printer
  • Bowl or box
Survival essentials icons and bingo cards
PDF – 2.1MB
Download Survival essentials icons and bingo cards

Before you begin

  • You’ll need enough copies of the bingo cards from ‘Survival essentials icons and bingo cards’ sheet for every player to have one each (or one between two, if you want to play in pairs). You could print multiple copies or use a photocopier.
  • Cut out the labelled icons from the sheet. Put them into a box or bowl and mix them up.

Play the game

  1. The person leading the game should give everyone a bingo card and a pen or pencil. Everyone should check they know what each item represents – if they’re not sure, they should ask now.
  2. Once everyone’s ready to play, the person leading the game should take an icon out of the bowl without looking. They should call out what’s on it.
  3. Everyone who has that item on their card should cross it out.
  4. The person leading the game should continue to choose an icon from the bowl and call it out. Everyone should listen carefully each time so they can cross out items on their card.
  5. Whenever someone’s marked five icons in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) they should call ‘bingo!’. The first player to call bingo is the winner.
  1. Everyone should talk about the different icons on their cards. What items are there? Why are these survival essentials? Were there any items on the bingo cards that weren’t survival essentials?

Reflection

This activity was all about developing skills. It can be easy to get carried away when thinking about ‘survival essentials’ – people can end up imagining themselves in a TV-style adventure! What sort of situations do people think they may actually find themselves in? People might think about being separated from the rest of their group on a hike, getting lost in an urban environment, or being stuck somewhere with no way to get home. These are probably a bit more likely than being stuck on a desert island! How could people prepare for the more likely situations? What sorts of things would be useful in a personal survival kit for each of the situations?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

  • People could play in pairs if they want to.
  • If people are already skilled at survival, you could make this game more challenging by describing the items, rather than using their names.
  • It’s up to you whether you warn people about the red herring items or not.
  • The person leading the game should hold up the icons as they call them out. This will help anyone who finds it tricky to hear the person leading the game and anyone who struggles to identify the items. They may want to sit a bit closer to the person leading the game so they can see.
  • You could scale up the bingo cards and print them bigger if anyone struggles to see the images.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Scouts Survival Skills Activity Badge