Discussion questions are a great tool for Sunday School teachers and volunteers. They help kids to open up, get to know each other, and develop trust. Use icebreakers at the beginning of a lesson, when a new kid joins the class, or when time remains before dismissal.

Encourage follow-up questions, and make sure everyone has a chance to speak. If the group is large, have kids form smaller groups, trios, or pairs. Here are a few ideas for icebreaker questions to get you started:

Icebreakers for Younger Children

• What’s your favorite game (or book, or movie, or cartoon character), and why?
• What person in the Bible would you want to spend a day with? What would you want to do together?
• What’s your favorite kind of animal that God made, and why?
• If you could have any job, what would it be?
• What’s something you’re really good at? How did you get good at it?
• So far, what’s your favorite thing you’ve done at Sunday school? Why?
• If you had to pick just one food to eat for a week, what would it be?
• Who makes you laugh, and how? How do you make other people laugh?
• What’s a favorite gift or surprise you’ve received?
• What three words would you use to describe Jesus?(Or how would you draw him?)

Icebreakers for Older Children

• At church or Sunday school, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered?
• If you had been one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, what would you have wanted to ask him?
• If you could live in another time or place, which would you choose, and why?
• What trait is most important to you in a friend? In a future spouse?
• Who inspires you—or who do you look up to—and why?
• If money weren’t an option, what would you most like to do or experience?
• What’s your favorite childhood memory, and why?
• Would you rather have one or two really close friends or dozens of acquaintances?
• What’s your favorite quality about yourself? What are you most eager to improve?
• How do you most want to be remembered, and why?