Question of the Day

This teaching tip starts with something that I bought from really good stuff.

A picture of it, with a link to the item, is featured above.

As you can see from the picture, at its simplest level, kids can answer a question of the day with their name magnet. The kit includes many questions that you can ask such as favorite color, pet, etc.

I use mine in a slightly different way that I think makes it a more valuable classroom tool. I have the kids answer the question first thing upon entering into the room. Then when I take roll, I go over to the question. If a kid's magnet is not on an answer yet, I mark them as absent (of course spot checking the room to make sure that no one forgot).

Later in the day, I include this question as part of our opening. Part of my opening student's job is to read the question of the day, and tell the class which answer was the most popular, and also answer a few more questions about the chart which require graphing skills. For example, I might ask how many more students chose one answer than another, or how many students chose two answers combined etc.

While sometimes I choose a question that is just for fun, most of the time I choose a question based on what we learned about the previous day, or something we will be learning about on that day.

I really like having this question of the day because it is an easy way to take roll, it helps kids practice their graphing skills (which is a 2nd grade standard), and I can use it to do a quick review or pre-assessment of any curriculum that we are learning about during the day.

I encourage you to have a question of the day, in whatever form you choose to use it.