How to Implement Question of the Day

what is question of the day

Are you looking for a way to engage your preschoolers in conversation? Would you like to help them to think and respond in different ways? Are you looking for ways to help children recognize their names and the names of others? Implement Question of the Day.

question of the day for preschool

Setting Up Question of the Day

Create a name card for each student. Include a photo on each child’s name card. Or print names on clothespins. Print the name on each side so the name will be positions right side up when clipped to either side of the chart.

Choose how you will post the question of the day. You can use a pocket chart, a magnetic surface, or magnet board. (An oil drip pan works well as a large magnet board.) Or post a piece of poster board on a bulletin board (for clipping on clothespins).

You can write the questions on sentence strips with a marker and attach them to the top of the chart. Include the two options: Yes/No or two other options. There are two important things to remember. First, the types of questions you ask are very important. They should be very simple yes or no questions that can be easily illustrated with only one picture. Or a simple questions with two possible options as answers. Second, when displaying your question of the day, you must include a picture cue so the children can “read” the chart independently. If you don’t include picture cues, then the print will be meaningless to the students.

question of the day pre-k

Using Question of the Day

Place your student’s name cards or clothespins on a table near the door of the classroom. As students enter the classroom invite them to locate their name card and visit the question of the day chart.

Children read the chart and place their names under the chosen response.

Late, analyze the data together in a whole group discussion. Count the responses for each option. Compare which has more or less than the other. Ask, “How many more yes responses are there?” Your students will develop critical thinking skills and required mathematical concepts in a fun and developmentally appropriate way.

Using a Question of the Day can help your students better understand and use the following mathematical terms:

  • More Than
  • Less Than
  • Equal
  • How Many

These kits can help you get your Question of the Day implemented quickly.
Question of the Day: Do You Like?
Question of the Day: Are You Wearing?
Question of the Day: Would You Rather?

If you like this teaching tip, check out my membership site, Teaching Trailblazers, where teachers just like you are connecting to save time, teach better, and live more.

More Teaching Tips

Classroom Rules
a picture of 3 different daily schedules printed on colorful paper and laying flat on a table with colorful markers
[Image: How to prevent kids from biting]
calendar time tips
multisensory activities
a colorful collage of 6 photos showing different fine motor activities
Cutting Practice Ideas for Preschool
Movement Songs for Preschoolers

5 thoughts on “How to Implement Question of the Day”

  1. I frequently use questions of the day in my classroom. While I don’t do them daily I try to implement them at least once a week and every time we change themes. The kids love them and love to read their friends names to see others’ answers. It’s a great way to get to know your students. I found a laminated 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with the question on a small magnetic board and mini magnets with their name works best in my small room. They are a great way to practice making yes/no predictions as well.

  2. Picture of the day has been part of my daily routine in my classroom. My students love answering questions that are meaningful to them. I integrate letters, thematic units and numbers. I start with very simple questions at the beginning and during the Spring I put more challenging questions such as How many bottons are in your t-shirt?. I have noticed that my students learn many words. I love it and i recommend teachers to use it.

  3. I have a “Question of the Week” and my class LOVES it. They love seeing their names displayed. Sometimes the answers needed are more detailed and I will write out the students complete answer. Some of the questions are kept and displayed during our end of the year “Art Show”.

  4. I love using a question of the day to get them thinking during circle time. I also use open ended questions with 4-5 options ie- How are you feeling today? etc. I need to keep my question graphs up for longer periods of time (months) for Step-Up-to-Quality. How do the rest of you create a long term question of the day board? I like Lakeshore’s Clipboard Math too.

  5. When I think of question of the day I always come back to graphs. We love to turn our questions into classroom graphs. Since the beginning of school we have discuss things about our families. One question that came up was pets, so we decided to find out what kind of pets we had. I used pictures with words for each pet and our graphed was formed. The children write their names in the space above the pet they have, even if there is more than one. We were excited to learn how many different pets we had and which was the most popular in our class.

Comments are closed.