Sep 29

Sep 29 6 Ways to Use a Question of the Day in Your Classroom

We all know building a classroom community is SO important to help students feel safe and ready to learn! My favorite way to build community is using a question of the day.

I want to share 6 ways to use a question of the day in your classroom, but first, let me show you how I spend 30 seconds a MONTH prepping my question of the day!

How I Prep

You can absolutely use the ideas in this post and implement a question of the day without downloading any resources. You can come up with your own questions! However, f you’re like most teachers and you just need a quick, no-prep list of questions that are ready to go, I’ve got you covered!

If you know me at all, you know “no-prep” is music to my ears! So, I created a way to continue using a question of the day without any prep work or last-minute searching.

First, you’ll want to grab one of my Question of the Day resources! You can download the March question of the day calendar and cards for free, you can sign-up for access to my Free Resource Vault to get the August question of the day calendar and cards for free, or you can grab the entire resource and get 366 questions! Click the images below to grab a resource. ⬇

Now that you have all the questions prepared for you, all you have to do is simply find the calendar for the month and print it! DONE! So simple. Even better, print all the calendars at once and keep them in a folder so you’re ready to go each month!

If you’re fancier than me, you can also print the question of the day cards that come with the resource and prep them for each month! Use a binder ring or a 4x6 photo storage box to keep them organized and you can use them year after year.

Now that you’ve got your questions prepped and ready to go, let’s dive into 6 ways that teachers have used a question of the day in their classroom!

Idea #1: Morning Meeting

My favorite way to use a question of the day is during morning meeting! This is a great way to build relationships and classroom community each day. I learn so much about my students by listening to their responses. As an added bonus, students learn a lot about each other too!

This teacher noticed teambuilding and social-emotional learning happening in her morning meeting by using a question of the day.

Idea #2: Student Conversation Starters

This teacher used a question of the day to start peer conversations in her classroom! This is a great way to help facilitate conversation and practice listening skills. I love that students are leading the conversations, but the teacher can easily provide a topic of discussion with the question of the day without extra prep!

Idea #3: Graphing Responses

I love the way this teacher incorporates an important math skill into her question of the day routine! Graphing student responses not only helps students to practice collecting and analyzing data, but it also helps students to see connections with their classmates.

Idea #4: Taking Attendance

Using a question of the day to take attendance is GENIUS! I don’t know about you, but I’m the teacher that gets the phone call of shame from the secretary every morning asking me to take attendance. (If you know, you know!) Using a form or discussion thread to take attendance is helpful for the teacher and using a question of the day makes it fun for students! Win win!

Idea #5: Writing (or Drawing) Prompts

I’ve had quite a few teachers tell me that they use a question of the day for writing prompts and I am in LOVE with that idea! This momma even differentiated the activity to use with all three of her kids. Generating ideas to write about can be difficult for kids, so providing a question prompt to get students started is a GREAT way to use a question of the day!

Idea #6: Afternoon Meeting

You know those awkward few minutes before students get dismissed? There isn’t really enough time to do an activity or game, but you still want some structure. Enter question of the day! I always do my question of the day in the morning, but this review has me thinking I should do it in the afternoon instead! This feels like a great way to close out the day, build rapport, and fill those minutes before dismissal with something quick and fun!

…and more!

Honestly, there are countless ways to use a question of the day in your classroom and it doesn’t matter which one you choose! No matter what, you get the opportunity to know your students better, help students to practice speaking and listening skills, build classroom community, and add some fun discussion to your day!

Ready to Start?

Again, you don’t need a resource to use a question of the day in your classroom, you can make up your own! But…

…if you’re looking to implement a question of the day without any extra brain power, try out the month of March for free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, try out the month of August for free by signing up for my Free Resource Vault, or grab all 12 months in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

If you missed it earlier, here are those links again! Click the image to get your resource. ⬇