Exploring Books with Children Using Guided Discussion Questions

By Allison M. Lothrop

OneOp seeks to provide practitioners with resources that support the important work they do with military families. The guided discussion questions below, based on 8 different children’s books, are designed to be used with children from ages 3-6 at home or in preschool settings. These books and the accompanying questions can be used with children who have a loved one in the military or children who want to gain a better understanding of military life. Guided discussion questions can be used in large or small group settings or with individual children.

For each book we developed between 7-11 questions. These discussion questions are meant to help facilitate a conversation with a child, extending the book content beyond simply reading the story. Most questions are open-ended to elicit conversation. Questions range from specific topics related to military life to more general questions related to emotions that a child might face. Though each question covers a different aspect of the book, adults can select questions from this list; there is no need to ask all of the questions for it is important to keep children engaged and make sure that story reading is a fun and positive experience. These guided discussion questions also can be shared with parents as a resource.

Please click each title to view and/or print the discussion guide associated with each book.