UNO Moo

UNO Moo is a game that has been in my collection for a number of years. This is another high-quality, very durable game. UNO Moo contains a barn, 28 animals and farmers, and 4 fences. Besides the durability of this game, I love the flexibility. While at times I play UNO Moo following the rules, I often alter the way I play to target a variety of goals. The flexibility allows me to use this game with a wide variety of children. Kids love pushing the animals into the barn!

Speech Activities:

UNO Moo can be used to work on speech sounds.

Use the UNO Moo Speech Chart to find practice words.
Take the animals out of the barn and add one back in for each word practiced. Use any practice words for this.
Hide practice words with the animals. Put an animal back into the barn after practicing the word.

Language Activities:

Vocabulary

Concepts –
- Colours – playing UNO Moo the traditional way, provides lots of repetition for matching colours
- Same/Different – playing this game the traditional way works on matching same colour or same animal.
Categories –
- Try a sorting activity. Gather zoo animals, farm animals, water animals, etc. and sort them into categories. You could also print these animal sorting cards and decide which animals belong in the barn (you can push them through the barn window).
Comparing and contrasting – talk about how the animals you put into the barn are the same or different (e.g., same colour, different animals; different animals, same colour).
Fancy words – expand your child’s vocabulary using these farm vocabulary words:
- acre
- acreage
- agriculture
- bale
- barley
- bull
- cattle
- coop
- crops
- dairy
- flock
- foal
- harvest
- herd
- hog
- meadow
- orchard
- pasture
- poultry
- ranch
- scarecrow
- shepherd
- silo
- stable
- trough
- udder
- wheat

Grammar

Question formation – “What colour did you get?” and “What number did you get?” can be repeated throughout this game.
Plurals – “The cows are the same colour.” “I have two sheep.”
Pronouns – “I have…” “You found…”
Prepositions – talk about where the animals are – behind the haystacks, on the ledge, in the barn.

Following Directions

Look at the instructions together as you learn to play.
This game encourages if…then directions (If you have….then you can…).
Follow directions using the animals from the game – try using this following directions visual.

Early Literacy Activities:

Phonological awareness –
1. Sing Willoughby Wallaby using the animal names (“Willoughby Wallaby wig, an elephant sat on a….” pig “Willoughby Wallaby wow, an elephant sat on a…” cow)
2. When cleaning up, give the first sound of an animal to tell which animal to put away (e.g., “p-p-p”= pig, “shhhh” = sheep).