What If Questions for Kids (30 Prompts!)

What If Questions for Kids— As a teacher, you’ve probably heard the phrase “What if?” from your students more times than you can count. They may come up to you with pleading eyes, and say “What if you postponed the quiz just one more day?” They also may try to play devil’s advocate with you, “But what if the principal says it’s okay?”

Now, it’s your chance to turn this phrase around on them. The next time they write in their journal, make them choose a “What if” question to answer.

These “What if” statements are fun for kids because they allow them to imagine different scenarios and transcribe them in their journals. It encourages them to think creatively and to get out of their comfort zone while writing. They are useful for elementary school journals as well as middle and high school journals.

Use the list of writing prompts shown below to get your class interested in writing and to help them develop their language skills. No matter which “What if” prompt your students choose, it’s just important that they keep on writing!

30 What If Questions for Kids

Enjoy these What If Prompts!

What if you were the teacher for the day? What would you teach the class? What homework would you assign?
What if you were running for election? What office would you pursue? What would your campaign slogan be?
What if you transformed into your pet? What would you do during the day?
What if you could control the weather? How would you change today’s forecast?
What if you discovered that you had a superpower? What would your superpower be? How would you use it?
What if you woke up and you were living in a different time period? Which time period would it be? How is life different in that time period?
What if you could spend the day with your favorite athlete. Who would you choose? What would you do?
What if you could talk to animals? Which animals would you talk to? What would you talk about?
What if you had your own kingdom? What rules would you make? What would your kingdom be like?
What if you were lost in a forest and had only one tool for survival? What would your tool be? How would you use it?
What if you could be one of the characters from your favorite book? Which character would you choose? Would you change the outcome of the story?
What if you met an alien on the way home from school? Would you head back to its home planet? What would you do with the alien?
What if you had to cook dinner for your entire family? What would you make? What would you do if they didn’t like it?
What if your favorite sports team won the championship? How would you react? How would you celebrate?
What if you could leave tomorrow for a vacation to any place in the world? Where would you go? What would you do?
What if your teacher could read your mind? What would your teacher be able to hear?
What if you could read your teacher’s mind? What do you think your teacher would be thinking?
What if you could choose to plant a magical plant in a garden. Which plant would you choose? What magical powers would it have?
What if you woke up and you were speaking a new language? Which language would it be and why?
What if you had to move to a new state? Where would you go? How would you feel about the big move?
What if you could prevent one historical event from happening? Which event would you stop? What impact do you think it would have?
What if you had the opportunity to be in a movie? Which type of role would you play? What would you do after you were famous?
What if you could only play with one toy for the rest of your life? Which toy would you choose?
What if all of your electronics disappeared tomorrow? How would you occupy yourself?
What if you and all of your friends were on a TV show? What type of TV show would it be? Which characters would you portray? What would happen?
What if you drank a magic potion that allowed you to fly? Where would you fly to? Would you like flying?
What if you could buy any car in the world. Which car would you buy? What color would it be?
What if you could travel to outer space? Where would you go? Who would you bring with you?
What if you could only save one of your memories? Which memory would you save? Why?
What if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life? Which meal would you choose? Why?