the rabbit is in the toilet

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Introduction
Setting up
Rules
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Uno Game for Prepositions

Introduction

Uno is a fast moving card game based on colours and numbers. In this version, students practice the prepositions "in," "on," "under," "by," "in front of," and "behind." Here is a sample of the cards:

sample Uno cards

Setting up

First download the pdf file. (Now in full colour, thanks to Phra John)

You will need two copies of each page, giving a total of 80 cards. It is best to print out the cards onto plain paper and photocopy them onto namecards. The cards need to be 91 mm by 55 mm, with 10 on each A4 sheet.

Playing the game

Shuffle the cards and deal out seven per player. It is best to have groups of four or five students per set of cards. Place one card (not a penalty card) face up and put the remainder of the cards (the pack) face down beside it.

The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards. You can discard a card onto the face up pile if it is the same animal or the same preposition as the current card showing. Eg. if the card showing is "The rabbit is in the toilet" then you can throw down any "Rabbit" card or any "Toilet" card.

The penalty cards are: "Skip" - the next player skips one turn; "Reverse" - the order of play reverses - the previous student throws next; "Draw Two" - the next player takes two from the pack unless they can put any "Draw Two" card down. In the latter case, the next player who can't throw a "Draw Two" card has to pick up the total number of cards from the pack.

The "Wild" card can be played at any time and the thrower has to call out the new animal. The "Draw Four" card is similarly wild, but the next player has to draw four from the pack, unless they can play another "Draw Four."

When a player throws down their penultimate card, they must shout "Uno" before the next player takes their turn. Failure to do so results in a penalty of two cards from the pack.

Children should read the text as they throw down each card.

Note: This game works much better when the students are familiar with the game first. I recommend that you play the original Uno game with colours (red, green, blue and yellow) and numbers (1-10) instead of my animals (fish, cat, rabbit and spider) and prepositions (on, in, under, by, in front of and behind). When playing the original version, the students should discard the cards FACE DOWN. This forces them to use English to say what the card is "Red One" or "Green Reverse."

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Copyright (c) Reggie Thomson, 1998 - 2008.

Last updated 9th January 2008