Question of the day: 60 openers sorted by level

Aylara A.

Kids' teacher · founder of AylaraTalks

June 27, 2026 · 6 min read

One good question at the door does three jobs: switches the brain to English, tells you today's energy level, and gives every child one guaranteed speaking turn before the lesson even starts. Keep the ritual identical; only the question changes.

Level 1: choice questions (one word to answer)

  • Cat or dog? Pizza or ice cream? Summer or winter? Red or blue? Big or small?
  • Run or swim? Sun or snow? Robot or dragon? Sing or dance? Apple or banana?
  • Ritual: answer AND point at your choice card. Pre-readers vote with fingers.

Level 2: about-me questions (a phrase)

  • What's your favourite toy / colour / food / animal?
  • What can you see from your window? What's in your bag? Who's at home today?
  • How do you feel — sunny, rainy or stormy? (Feelings via weather — safer for shy kids.)

Level 3: imagination questions (a sentence or three)

  • What would you do with a dragon for one day? If your cat could talk, what would it say?
  • You find a magic door in your room — where does it go? What food should NEVER exist?
  • Put the best ones on the Name Wheel and let chance pick — the spin makes even question time a game.

Take this with you

Same ritual, rotating question, level matched to the child. Sixty questions is a school year of guaranteed first words — pin this list next to your camera.

🎈 Put it into play

Everything here pairs with our free classroom games — no prep, no accounts.

Open the games

About the author

Aylara A.

Kids' teacher · founder of AylaraTalks

Aylara is a kids' teacher who spent years hand-making every classroom game — cutting cards and drawing boards on paper sheets. She created AylaraTalks so no teacher has to start from a blank page again.

More from this topic