One of the easiest and purest ways to extend children’s thinking is to talk to them, especially when they are playing and exploring. Ask them some open-ended questions, give them time to respond, and BOOM! you have added to their knowledge and skills. You have made them think and verbally interact with you. That is the essence of how children learn.
So the obvious question is…what do I say? What do these questions sound like? When I ask them, what am I actually doing for those little (BIG) brains?
Here is Parent PhD’s list of open-ended questions that I share with teachers, schools and parents. There is a lot here…try a few when you observe a child playing and exploring on her own. You’ll be amazed at where the experience (and conversation) will go.
When we ask children open-ended questions during their explorations and play, we are enhancing their ability to…
Observe
What do you see/hear/smell/taste/feel?
What did you notice?
Predict
What do you think will happen if you ____?
What do you think will happen next?
Evaluate
What made you decide to do ____?
Which of these do you like the most? The least? Why?
Infer
Why do you think it/that happened?
Remember/reconstruct prior experiences
What happened the last time we ____?
Relate cause and effect
What happens when/if you ____?
Utilize factual knowledge
Give what you learned about ____, what do you think will happen if I ____?
Put thoughts into words
Assess feelings
Why do you think ____?
How do you feel about___?
How would you feel if ____ happened to you?
Compare things
Think about similarities and differences
Discriminate among objects/events
How are these the same? Different?
What makes these two things go together?
Which one of these doesn’t belong?
Stretch thinking
Imagine something
Consider consequences
What would happen if ____?
What would happen if you ____?
What would happen if ____ instead of ____?
Generalize
Now that we have ____, what happens if I ____?
Problem solve
Propose alternatives
What could you do to ____?
How can we ____?
In what other way can we ___?
Quantify
How many? How long? How far?
Become aware of their thinking processes
How did you know ____?
Why did you decide ____?
Apply
How can you use what you learned?
Reason
Make decisions
Why do you think we have that rule?
What do you think we should do?
Communicate
How can you share with others what you think?
These questions were developed from my own work with children and teachers as well with guidance from the following texts:
Dodge, D.T., Colker, L.J. & Heroman, C. (2002). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Teaching Strategies.
Kostelnick, M.J., Rupiper, M., Soderman, A.K., & Whiren, A.P. (2014). Developmentally appropriate curriculum in action. New York: Pearson.
