50+ Questions to Get Kids Talking & Build Community

The importance of building relationships with students has been well documented in research. A strong teacher-student relationship can mean the difference between an engaged learner and a disengaged learner. There are several ways to build relationships with students, but the easiest is to actually get to know them and take an interest in their lives.

Whether you're teaching elementary, middle school, or even high schoolers, social-emotional learning and relationship building are major topics of interest and often come up in professional circles. However, you don't have to do time-consuming or high-prep lessons to fit it all in!

If you've been wondering how to build relationships with your students, here's an easy way to get started.

Create a morning routine that includes a morning meeting. This routine offers three significant benefits:

1. It helps you learn more about your students.
2. Connects your class with one another & builds community.
3. A great way to integrate speaking & listening standards.

It can be helpful to have some days be less structured, but you should always have conversation starters planned to help students get talking if they struggle to get going.

Download the entire list of discussion questions for free.

50 Discussion Questions to Build Relationships with Students & Foster Classroom Community

Since you have enough to do, I've created a list of over questions you can use when you don't have time to come up with your own. They were selected to be engaging, foster classroom community, and help you build positive relationships with your students.

I've broken the questions into categories to make them easier to find.

“Would you rather…” Questions

• go camping or stay in a hotel
• visit the mountains or the ocean
• go to the zoo or an aquarium?
• get up early or sleep late?
• play an individual sport or a team sport?
• eat at home or eat at a restaurant?
• have indoor recess or outdoor recess?
• have art or PE?
• stay up late or go to bed early?
• go to a movie or a play?
• play video games or play outside?
• text your friends or get together?
• ride a bike or a scooter?

People of Interest Questions – If you could meet…

• any celebrity, who would you like to meet?
• anyone from history, who would you like to meet?
• a character from a book, who would you meet?
• an athlete you admire, who would meet?
• any musician or group, who would you meet?
• a cartoon character in real life, who would you choose to meet?
• a Disney character, who would you meet?
• any superhero in real life, who would you pick?

Travel & Adventure Questions

• If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• …go anywhere in our state; where would you visit?
• …travel anywhere in our solar system, where would you go?
• …go anywhere in (YOUR TOWN or A NEARBY CITY) for the day; where would you go?
• …travel back to any point in history, where would you go?
• …move anywhere in the world/country/state, where would you move?

“Just one question” Questions – If you could…

• ask the president one question, what would you ask?
• meet (CHARACTER FROM BOOK YOU'VE READ); what is one question you would ask him/her?
• ask (HISTORICAL FIGURE) one question, what would it be?
• get (FAMOUS INVENTOR) to answer one question; what would you ask?
• ask your principal just one question, what would you ask?
• get (INSERT TEACHER NAME) to answer one question; what would it be?
• ask (CELEBRITY) just one question, what would it be?
• ask your family pet one question, what would it be?

Learn student favorites while you build classroom community

Students love to talk about their favorites. This is a great way to help students find commonalities amongst themselves, which goes a long way to fostering classroom community.

Try these questions on days when students seem a little unfocused or after issues arise between peers. They are great for reconnecting and reminding students of the positives.

Future-Focused Questions to build relationships with students

Understanding your students' goals and dreams for the future is a great way to build rapport and foster your student-teacher relationship.

Knowing students' goals and aspirations can help you connect them with resources and support them as they work toward that path.

• What career are you interested in?
• What do you think you'll be doing in 20 years?
• Where do you want to go to college?
• What are you most excited about doing as a teenager/college student/adult?
• Where do you want to live when you grow up?
• What goals do you have for yourself this year?
• What are five things you want to do before you turn (AGE)?

Special Memories

Students love to share their special memories. These questions tend to take a little longer to answer, so you may want to use them for an entire week and have a few students respond each day.

This type of question can be a good conversation point between you and your students. Connecting to students and their background experiences is a big part of building a positive relationship.

Share a memory…

• you have from school that is special to you.
• that was a special experience you had with your family.
• of a special experience you shared with a friend.
• about a time someone was extra kind to you.

Describe the most…

• amazing thing you've ever seen in real life.
• beautiful place you've ever been.
• excited you've been about an upcoming event.

Community Building & Social Skills Questions

These questions are designed to get your students talking about character traits and social scenarios. This can help you better understand the dynamic between students and can help support you in building positive relationships with your students.

• Why do you think it is important to have rules in school?
• What is one rule we have in school that you think is unfair?
• What is the most important rule we have here at school?
• Why is it important to show respect to others?
• Do peers deserve the same respect as elders?
• How can you show respect to others?
• What does kindness look like?
• How do you prefer others to show you kindness – hugs, notes, time together, etc?
• If you could change anything about our school, what would you change?

Get the list of discussion questions to help build relationships with students

Ready to download the list to build relationships in your classroom?

This printable checklist is great for helping you organize circle time discussions or for daily quick writes!

Grade Level/RolePreK or Kindergarten1st Grade2nd grade3rd Grade4th Grade5th Grade6th Grade7th Grade8th GradeHigh SchoolNot Listed

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Get more tips on relationship building in the classroom.

Whether you use these as part of your SEL questions for high school students, as do now questions for middle school students, or as part of your morning circle in elementary school, I hope you'll love these fun discussion questions.

If you want more easy-to-implement tips for fostering teacher-student relationships this school year, check out this article on ways to connect with your class.