Instructions:
Print file containing:
Lesson Plan (English and Nihongo version for HRT),
Worksheet - there are 2 copies in 1 sheet - print for as many students as you have.
Questions - print 1 copy and cut into strips. 1 question per student.
Practice Saying the Questions and Giving Answers. - distribute the worksheets and read together with the class, each question, and have them practice replying with their own answer. Example: What color do you like? Answer: I like green/pink...
Explain Unicorn concept - unicorn the animal, but also American slang for a very special/unique/talented person. Example: Otahni Shohei is a unicorn because he can hit and pitch well, while other baseball players can only hit or pitch, and not as well as him.
Explain Unicorn Game goal - to find out which classmate is the unicorn. He/She has a unique question, the only person with a different question.
Other classmates have a question that is the same as others (questions can have 2 or 3 people with the same question).
To find out who, they go around and pair up, ask each other their question and give their answer.
Students write down the name of the classmate in the same row as the question their classmate asked them.
As they write more names, they will see that some questions have 2 or 3 classmates with the same question.
But as they finish, they will see that one question has only 1 student.
That is the unicorn - write the student's name at the bottom of the worksheet and sit down, wait for others to finish.
*Even the unicorn won't know that they are the unicorn. Students pick the question strip of paper at random, and must quickly ask all their classmates and listen to the questions to find out.
***Note: Check your class size, and adjust the number of questions and number of copies per question.
The goal is to print exactly 2 or 3 copies for other questions, and only 1 copy for 1 specific question.
I've done this for small class sizes and big class sizes. Big class sizes will take longer to finish and go through all classmates.
For small class sizes, it can be done in as fast as 5-10 minutes. Therefore, we play a 2nd round. But I change the "unicorn" question so they won't know.
(At first, I print 3 copies for each question. When I find out how many students are in a class, I take out the other copies of some questions, making sure there is 1 question that has only 1 copy, and some questions that have only 2 copies, then the rest 3 copies. Having a mix of 2-copy and 3-copy questions is nice, so that it's not immediately obvious what the unicorn (1-copy) question is. If they haven't asked all their classmates yet, some of the 2-copy questions will have 1 name so far, so it's a mystery until the end.
This game is flexible for other grammar or review lessons.
Instead of having many questions, an option is to have 1 target question, but different answers. All students ask the same question to each other, but give a different answer (Based on their strip of paper). Students search who has the unicorn answer.