Question of the Day graphing activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
What is a Question of the Day?
A question of the day is a graphing activity that can be used to teach young children in preschool or kindergarten how to collect and organize data in a graphic representation as well as teach them how to analyze the data.
Why should I have a Question of the Day?
From a mathematical perspective, graphing and answering questions can help your students understand and use mathematical language such as more than, less than, equal, and the same.
Reading the questions daily supports the development of emergent literacy skills. When children engage in this type of activity they are learning to recognize their names in print, understand that print has meaning, track the print in the sentence, and use picture cues to help them understand the text.
What type of questions should I ask?
In preschool and kindergarten, the questions asked can be very simple yes or no questions that can be easily illustrated with only one picture. For example, the question “Do you like carrots?” is followed by a picture of a carrot. This is very straight forward easily illustrated with only one picture.
If the question is not easily illustrated with a picture, such as “Do you have a brother?” and the picture shows a boy, the students may not understand the question and become confused.
Getting Started with Question of the Day
There are many ways to display your daily questions. You can use a pocket chart, a magnetic surface, or even an oil drip pan with magnets works well.
To implement a question of the day in your classroom, start by creating name cards for each student including their pictures.
You can write the questions on sentence strips with a marker and attach them to the top, or you can print these questions I created for you below. Just print, cut, and laminate!
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 question by touching each word in the sentence and using the picture cues to help. Of course, if you have an extra adult helper in the classroom they can read the question to the children.
Next, the students place their name card in the appropriate column.
This activity can also serve as your attendance system. You can quickly look and see which name cards have not been claimed and mark those students absent.
Analyzing the Data
Wait, you’re not done yet!
Now that you have collected and organized your data, it’s time to analyze the data; which is an important piece of the graphing activity that is often overlooked.
Collect and organize your data first thing every morning, but don’t analyze it right away, you can do that during math time. This allows the students to be thinking about the graph and making observations and predictions on their own.
During math time, gather your students around the graph and together count the numbers of students in each column and write the numbers at the bottom. Then, ask specific questions regarding the data using mathematical language such as “Which column has the most votes? Which column has the least amount of votes? How many more votes does the yes column have than the no column?”
Where do you find the questions?
Perhaps the most challenging part of implementing this learning strategy is coming up with your own questions. I created three printable kits that you can use to quickly and easily get started with question of the day in your classroom. Use these lists of printable questions to help your preschool or kindergarten students develop a strong mathematical foundation.
When do you ask the questions?
This is really up to you and your schedule. You might consider adding the questions to your morning routine, as the children enter the classroom. This way, the children will have time to go back and revisit the questions before math time.
Question of the Day: Do You Like
28 printable Question of the Day or Week graphing questions for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom.
Question of the Day: Are You Wearing?
30 printable Question of the Day or Week graphing questions for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom. “Are you wearing?”
Question of the Day: Would you rather?
28 printable Question of the Day or Week graphing questions for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom. “Would you rather?”
Hi Vanessa,
Love this idea but where can I purchase a pocket chart like the one in the photograph?
Thank you for all you do for our kids!!!
Pocket charts can often be purchased during back to school time in the Target Bullseye Playground (formerly Dollar Spot) You can also find them on Amazon or in any teacher supply store. I just put a piece of tape down the middle of a schedule pocket chart from Target ($3) to create my Question of the Day pocket chart. But you don’t need a chart, there are several other ways you could do question of the day without a pocket chart listed here on this page.
Where can I create the names with photos like you have?
I have this freebie https://www.pre-kpages.com/products/free-editable-name-cards-with-picture/