Whiteboards are wonderful platforms. A centralized area where people can collaborate. The temporary nature of the erasing medium allows people to let down their guard. Whatever is written will be erased. Then a new fresh surface is ready for more ideas and sharing. On my creativity blog I share a list of whiteboard games.
My daughter’s kindergarten after-school program at the YMCA has a Question of the Day. Every day one of the teachers writes a question on a white board. As each child answers the question, the teacher writes the child’s name along with his/her response.
Here is an example, with the kids’ names blurred out for privacy.

97 whiteboard questions
- If you had a pet dragon what would you name it?
- What is your most favorite food?
- Who is your friend?
- Would you rather go camping or stay at a hotel
- What makes you happy?
- What makes you smile?
- If you could go back in time, where would you go?
- What is your favorite breakfast food?
- What is your favorite movie?
- What is your favorite part of the school day?
- If you could invent a robot, what could it do?
- What is your favorite zoo animal?
- If you were a desert, what would you be?
- What do you think is in outer space?
- What is the ickiest food you’ve ever tasted?
- If you could fly, where would you go?
- What do you like to do the most when you are not in school?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What is your favorite season?
- What is one thing you could do all day without stopping?
- If you could make up a new holiday, what would it be?
- What is your favorite thing to do with your family?
- If you could grow anything in your yard, what would it be?
- What makes the best fort?
- What do you enjoy doing with your mom?
- If you could combine two animals, what would they be?
- If you could learn another language, what would it be?
- What is your favorite thanksgiving food?
- If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
- What is your favorite part of thanksgiving?
- Name one thing you would like to have in the future
- If you could get rid of one food forever, what would it be?
- What is the first thing you do Christmas morning?
- What you rather spend Christmas on the beach or in the snow?
- Would you rather swim in the ocean or the pool?
- Where is your favorite hiding spot when playing hide-n-seek?
- Would you rather hibernate or stay awake?
- Would you rather rake leaves or shovel snow?
- Would you rather eat spaghetti or tacos?
- Would you rather go water skiing or snow skiing
- Would you rather live in a cave or a treehouse?
- Would you rather see the world in black-and-white or glow-in-the-dark?
- Would you rather go to the zoo or go to the aquarium?
- Would you rather be able to stop time or go back in time?
- Would you rather be a detective or a pilot?
- Would you rather have tiger stripes or porcupine needles?
- Would you rather eat pudding or Jello?
- Would you rather make a snowman or build a sandcastle?
- Would you rather be able to talk to animals or read people’s minds?
- Would you rather drive a police car or a fire truck?
- Would you rather have ten siblings or one sibling?
- Would you rather be the president or a celebrity?
- Will the groundhog see his shadow? Yes or no
- If you could teach one subject, what would it be?
- What sound do you like to hear?
- Would you rather discover a new animal or planet?
- Would you rather ride a flying car or unicorn?
- Would you rather help clean the room or help for dinner?
- What wild animals have you seen this winter?
- Would you rather eat one giant meal per day or ten tiny meals per day?
- Would you rather buy one $100 toy or 100 $1 toys?
- Would you rather live in a mansion in the city or on a farm with animals?
- Would you rather eat pizza or mac-n-cheese?
- Would you rather teach someone a new joke or a new dance?
- Would you rather sleep late or get up early?
- If you could be invisible for one day, what would you do?
- If you could pick a name for yourself, what would it be?
- If you could draw anything right now, what would it be?
- You’re a photographer for a day, what would you take a picture of?
- Would you rather play inside or outside?
- Would you rather have a food fight or water balloon fight with your family?
- Would you rather be an athelete at the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics?
- Would you rather move to a different city or different state?
- Would you rather have pancakes for breakfast everyday or pizza for dinner everyday?
- What spells do leprechauns do?
- Would you rather be able to control the weather or talk to animals?
- Would you rather go to the doctor or the dentist?
- Would you rather live with your parents or grandparents?
- If you could spend a day with a character from a book, TV show, or movie; who would you choose?
- Would you rather swim with dolphins or turtles?
- Would you rather have a bowl full of candy or bowl full of ice cream?
- Would you rather have unlimited art supplies or unlimited LEGOs?
- If you found a genie, what would you wish for?
- Would you rather have a treehouse or a hideout underground?
- What are you thankful for?
- If your house was on fire and you had time to safely grab one thing before running out, what would it be?
- Would you rather jump in a pool of slime or a pool of mud?
- Would you rather find something you lost or get something brand new?
- Would you rather be shrunk down to the size of a bug or become the size of a whale?
- How do you like best helping others?
- Would you rather be stranded on a desert island or in the forest?
- If you could be any age for the rest of your life, what age would you be? Why?
- Which sense is your favorite? Seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling
- If you were the only person on earth, what would be the first thing you would do?
- Would you rather go to school or attend online school?
- Would you rather be alone in the desert or in the jungle?
- Would you rather play a board game or a card game?
Naturally, seeing my daughter’s answers every day is fun. We could ask her a question like this at home. But what happens when she is asked the same question in a classroom setting? I love seeing how her answers potentially shift in this context.
Being able to see all her classmates’ answers is also a blast. It’s a great way to get to know her classmates more. The range of answers shows fun creativity. You’ll also see how one child answers something; then, a bunch uses a similar response. For instance, “What makes you smile?” Once someone answers a flavor of ice cream, many other kids use a type of ice cream in their response.

I’m considering making this a series on my Twitter where I answer the Circle Time Question of the Day. All my answers will be under the hashtag #CircleTimeQuestionOfTheDay. (Given the length of this hashtag, nobody has ever used it. Which is kinda cool; this will group all these tweets nicely).
For now, I’ll answer some of the first questions.
- If you had a pet dragon what would you name it? Fireball (or Tulli—Finnish for fire)
- What is your favorite food? Gnocchi with corn and other stuff my wife puts into the dish.
- Who is your friend? Abhay
- Would you rather go camping or stay at a hotel? Camping
- What makes you happy? When people comment on my blog posts
- What makes you smile? Seeing my daughters after a day of work
- If you had your own store, what kind of store would it be? Ok, I have a hard time answering this one, so I’m going to break this off into multiple points…
- I would say comic book store, because I love reading comic books. I wouldn’t be a good comic book store owner, because I’m not an expert in comic books. I read mostly Transformers comics. So maybe my store would be an Everything Transformers Store. Oh man. That would be incredible.
- I would say toy store, because I love toys. But cleaning up messy aisles would get old.
- I would say art store, but then I wouldn’t want it to be a snooty gallery.
- I’d like to have a store where I sell fun posters and art that I make.
- I absolutely love art museum stores. That would be fun too.
- I’d also be open to something completely quirky and niche. Like a rope store. All sorts of ropes sold. I don’t know anything about ropes. But I bet there are lots of types of ropes for all different uses.
Joint venture…we should open a indie book/art store. Maybe it features Chicagoland artists and writers? We need something to set it apart from all the existing cool indie stores…
Can it have Transformers too?