We’re getting ready for Ask a Stupid Question Day. It used to be National Stupid Question Day, but we hear that it is now observed in the UK as well as in the US. Ask a Stupid Question Day is the day for freely asking those questions you hesitate to ask for fear of seeming stupid.
The first one is, “Just when is Ask a Stupid Question Day?” Sources vary, but it’s the 27th, 28th, 30th, or simply the last school day in September.
In honor of Ask a Stupid Question Day, here are some fun things to do with stupid questions in your classroom:
- Be traditional and have students write all the questions they’ve hesitated to ask for fear of being laughed at. Put them in a hat and answer them at intervals all day.
- Play Zobmondo!! You Gotta Be Kidding – The Crazy Game of “Would You Rather” for Kids or Zobmondo!! Would You Rather? Boardgame – Classic Version or even just the old fashioned parlor game version in which you ask questions like “Would you rather be a vampire or a werewolf?”
- Use Geekspeak: A Guide to Answering the Unanswerable, Making Sense of the Nonsensical, and Solving the Unsolvable to find very odd questions and how to answer them with math and science. Take some time to figure out how much your head weighs, how many slaves would be needed to keep your classroom lights on, or many other things that some might call stupid questions.
- Create a PowerPoint, Keynote, or bulletin board presentation of illustrated stupid questions. Or, if you prefer, excellent questions and their answers. Because the main point of all this is to encourage students to ask questions more freely.
Let us just leave you with this thought: what if the hokey pokey is what it’s all about?
