Question Quest

We’re going to get to know our classmates better by going on a Question Quest together. I’m going to give you a table of interesting facts, and it’s your job to roam around the classroom or within your breakout room to find someone in the class for whom that fact is true and get them to sign your paper. The goal is to fill up your worksheet with signatures in the next 10-15 minutes. For example, if I look at number one on my worksheet, I might ask [name] if she has [characteristic/experience]. If she has it, I can write her name on my paper and move on to number 2. If not, I have to keep searching.

1. Distribute the worksheets ask students to familiarize themselves with the statements on the card.
2. Encourage students to approach each other, ask questions, and look for which of their peers has the facts on the cards. If online, the teacher groups the students into breakout rooms and changes them after a few minutes so that they can talk to as many classmates as possible.
3. When a participant finds the right person, he or she asks the person to put a mark in the appropriate section (e.g., the first letter of their name/signature/emoji, etc.). Encourage students to talk to as many participants as possible in order to quickly complete the task. You can make the task more difficult by offering to limit the number of signatures per child on one card to a maximum of two categories.

• How did it feel to ask people about themselves? What did it feel like to share about yourself?
• Did you find any similarities with classmates that you weren’t expecting? What about differences?
• What is an example of how a strong relationship with a classmate (or adult) helped you in school?
• What are some ideas for things we could do in the classroom to know each other better and build a stronger community?
• How would you change this game for the next time we play?

For primary school students:

• Offer different topics each time that meet the interests of the students (e.g., favorite food, interesting games, cartoons, books, etc.). Students can also suggest their own topics.
• Create your own worksheet that has a shorter list of characteristics/experiences - keep them simple (e.g., “has a dog” or “has brown eyes”). Draw symbols or pictures that signify the characteristics (e.g., draw a dog in the box for “has a dog”).
• Before you begin, ask students to predict their classmates’ answers. Emphasize that students shouldn’t make assumptions and should not be upset if they are wrong. After the game, discuss which assumptions were correct.
• Have students work in pairs or teams to discuss the information they have learned about their classmates. Students can create videos, collages, etc. to present information about classmates.
• Combine Question Quest with other educational tasks. For example, during a math lesson, students can create a graphs to show the percentage of the class that likes certain foods, such as broccoli.

For students in grades 5-6:

• Have students use the blank template by listing 15-20 unique characteristics/experiences.