I've been thinking about how to use 'Would You Rather?' questions in the classroom. These kinds of questions are a great way to get to know your children at the beginning of the school year, and kids love to get up and move to one side of the room or the other to indicate their choice. Once children have made their choices, you can then facilitate an engaging class talking and listening activity, as children explain why they prefer one option over the other.
Would you rather? questions are also a good way to start talking about opinions vs facts with your class. There is no right or wrong answer with a 'Would you rather?' question. A child's answer is their opinion, and it's OK that their friend may have a different one. This concept may take a bit of discussion to internalize!
'Would You Rather?' questions have such a wide variety of helpful classroom uses, so it makes sense to take advantage of this versatility in the pre-K or K classroom, and use it to help reinforce alphabet letters, letter sounds, and initial sounds. The Would you rather? questions will always give teachers insights into their class, develop talking and listening skills, get classes up and moving, and introduce classes to opinions; we can just add the 'alphabet' layer for additional educational punch (and who doesn't love to be able to target multiple learning outcomes with a single activity?!).
The letter T is often one of the first letters taught, so this resource (click the link about to access it) has 5 digital slides with 5 different 'Would You Rather?' questions based around words that start with 't'. These slides are compatible with Google, although you can also download the Google Slides file as a Powerpoint, if that works better for you.
You can use one or two 'Would you rather?' questions each day (depending on how many days you spend working on a letter) to introduce or consolidate the letter T and its sound. You can also use all of the 'Would You Rather?' questions together as a whole class 'letter T' activity. As you work through the slides (whether you are using one or more than one digital slide at a time), your class can make a list of the letter T words they are learning, and practice identifying 't' as the initial sound in these words.
If you've already taught the letter 'T', these slides can be used later in the year as simple opinion writing prompts. They are great for kindergarten classes, as the first sentence is essentially written for the children....they just need to write out their 'I would rather' sentence, then add a sentence or two giving a reason(s) for their choice. Clicking the picture above will allow you to download these slides to use in your own class.
'Would You Rather?' questions have such a wide variety of helpful classroom uses, so it makes sense to take advantage of this versatility in the pre-K or K classroom, and use it to help reinforce alphabet letters, letter sounds, and initial sounds. The Would you rather? questions will always give teachers insights into their class, develop talking and listening skills, get classes up and moving, and introduce classes to opinions; we can just add the 'alphabet' layer for additional educational punch (and who doesn't love to be able to target multiple learning outcomes with a single activity?!).
The letter T is often one of the first letters taught, so this resource (click the link about to access it) has 5 digital slides with 5 different 'Would You Rather?' questions based around words that start with 't'. These slides are compatible with Google, although you can also download the Google Slides file as a Powerpoint, if that works better for you.
You can use one or two 'Would you rather?' questions each day (depending on how many days you spend working on a letter) to introduce or consolidate the letter T and its sound. You can also use all of the 'Would You Rather?' questions together as a whole class 'letter T' activity. As you work through the slides (whether you are using one or more than one digital slide at a time), your class can make a list of the letter T words they are learning, and practice identifying 't' as the initial sound in these words.
If you've already taught the letter 'T', these slides can be used later in the year as simple opinion writing prompts. They are great for kindergarten classes, as the first sentence is essentially written for the children....they just need to write out their 'I would rather' sentence, then add a sentence or two giving a reason(s) for their choice. Clicking the picture above will allow you to download these slides to use in your own class.
| Along with the digital 'Would you rather?' questions to teach and consolidate alphabet and letter sound knowledge, these Would you rather?' questions also make a great introduction to early graphing skills. When they are asked their 'Would you rather?' question, the class will divide into 2 groups. Their choices can easily be graphed using a bar graph. The above link also includes a PDF with simple bar graphs for each 'Would You Rather?' question. The y-axis goes from 0-20. This should cover graphing the choices of most classes, as children's preferences should divide between the 2 options. |  |
This graphing activity targets multiple numeracy learning outcomes, as it provides children with meaningful, engaging counting practice, helping them link counting with cardinality. As children are counting each group, they should also begin to see how structured arrangements are easier to count than random ones. These graphing activities are also a great way for children to experience the fact that the same group (their class) can be sorted in a variety of different ways!
And, of course, children will experience graphing repeatedly, which will help consolidate their understanding of this 'measurement and data' activity. Ff the letter T has already been taught this year, save these graphing sheets and letter T 'Would you rather?' questions for later in the year when your class is working on their sorting and early graphing skills.
I hope some pre-K and Kindergarten classes will find these Letter T, graphing, and opinion writing activities useful. As teachers, we have to squeeze so much instruction into so little time, I'm always on the lookout for teaching ideas that allow us to teach and consolidate multiple learning outcomes at the same time - I hope these activities will help you to do that in your own class!
And, of course, children will experience graphing repeatedly, which will help consolidate their understanding of this 'measurement and data' activity. Ff the letter T has already been taught this year, save these graphing sheets and letter T 'Would you rather?' questions for later in the year when your class is working on their sorting and early graphing skills.
I hope some pre-K and Kindergarten classes will find these Letter T, graphing, and opinion writing activities useful. As teachers, we have to squeeze so much instruction into so little time, I'm always on the lookout for teaching ideas that allow us to teach and consolidate multiple learning outcomes at the same time - I hope these activities will help you to do that in your own class!
RSS Feed