UNO Game for the English-as-a-Second-Language Classroom

This is a complete and ready-to-go, fun English-as-a-Second-Language, lesson-plan game, also known as UNO. You can use this ESL UNO game as an icebreaker or during the semester to have your ESL students practice speaking in past, present and future tenses. This ESL UNO game can be taught to your ESL students of any age or class size, as long as your ESL students have reached at least an advanced beginner level of English proficiency. In this AC article I provide you with ideas and materials for all English proficiency levels. I encourage teachers to brainstorm and create their own variations of this ESL UNO game to suit the specific needs of their own ESL students.

ESL UNO Preparation: 1) Read this article and make copies of information sheets if needed. 2) A regular deck of cards. Optional: Animal picture charade cards for the charade consequence. Many schools have sets of flash cards you can use for this. Or you can easily make your own (See the end of this article for easy instructions). ESL UNO Materials: 1 deck of cards. For beginner levels you also need copies of the answer sheets provided in this AC article. English Proficiency Level: This ESL UNO lesson can be used for Advanced Beginner level ESL students and up. Class Size: Small or large. ESL UNO Objective: This lesson is to help your ESL students practice speaking and creating sentences in the past, present and future tenses. Number of Classes Needed to Complete ESL UNO: For intermediate and advanced ESL students this lesson can be completed in 1 class. For beginner ESL students, this lesson can span 2 classes. During the first class, your ESL students can fill out the information sheets, during the second class your ESL students can play the ESL UNO card game. Arrangement of the Classroom for ESL UNO: For this ESL UNO game it is best to arrange the desks in a circle.

ESL UNO Rules: This is the old classic card game, with an ESL UNO twist. As in the original UNO game, different cards in the deck have different consequences. ESL UNO Card Consequences: Cards 2-9 have the same consequence which is that your ESL students must stand up and tell the class pieces of information about themselves, using past, present or future tense, whatever you the teacher chooses. The amount of information they need to give corresponds to the number on the card. Example: If your ESL students draw a "4", they stand up and tell the class 4 things about themselves. (To make this ESL UNO game fast paced, take out cards 6-9.)10's = Skip: If your ESL students draw a 10, they skip their turn and the next student must draw a card. Jack = Skip 2: If your ESL students draw a Jack the student who drew the card and the next 2 students skip their turn. Queen = Reverse: If your ESL students draw a Queen, they skip their turn and the student who just had a turn must draw again. King: If your ESL students draw a King, they draw again and give that card to the student of their choice. Jokers and Aces : Your ESL students don't have to give any information but they must draw an animal charade card and act out the animal on the card. (Or if you don't have or want to make animal charade cards, make up your own consequence.)

ESL UNO Special instructions for beginners: For Beginner ESL students it is best to spread this ESL UNO lesson out over 2 class periods. The first class should be used to help your ESL students fill out a questionnaire for the ESL UNO consequences, like the one I have provided for you below. Have ESL students write their names on their questionnaires and hand them to you at the end of the first class so you can return the questionnaires back to your ESL students for the second class when you will play this ESL UNO game.

ESL UNO Questionnaire:

The country I would like to travel to most is _________________________.

My favorite sport to play is ______________________________________.

My favorite movie is ___________________________________________.

My favorite computer game is ___________________________________.

After school I ________________________________________________.

When I grow up I want to be ____________________________________.

My favorite color is ___________________________________________.

My favorite food is ____________________________________________.

I get up at ____ o'clock.

I go to sleep at ___ o'clock.

I have _____ brother(s) and ____ sister(s).

The animal I would most like to have as a pet is ____________________.

I really don't like _____________________________________________.

My best school subject is ______________________________________.

My birthday is on _____________________________________________.

I watch TV for ______ hours a week.

The gift I want most for Christmas is ______________________________.

Directions to make your own animal picture charade cards for ESL UNO: Simply go to fotosearch.com or Google.com and type into the search engine the animal you want plus the word illustration. Example: lion illustration. Copy the image you want and paste it into a document. Print it out and cut it out. I use these ESL UNO charade cards with my elementary students to play animal charades. (Got to get the most out of your efforts.)

For more fun ready to go ESL Lesson Plans like ESL UNO please see my other articles.