Making a quiz for children is not difficult. What is harder is making a quiz that will keep kids entertained and that will leave them wanting more. The good news is that putting together a successful quiz for kids can be done relatively easily and is a process that is easy to repeat for future occasions.
The key to making a successful quiz for children is understanding what types of quizzes they enjoy themselves. This can be done by looking at the television programmes they choose to watch. There are plenty of quiz shows aimed at kids of all ages and every child has their favourites in terms of format and content. The quiz that is prepared does not need to be an exact copy of a television show format but it could contain some ideas that come from the show.
The next step is to decide what subjects will appeal to the children for whom the quiz is being prepared. Some will be heavily into sports and cars. Others might have a preference for music or celebrities. Some children will enjoy questions that involve solving puzzles.
Writing Questions for a Quiz for Children
All children will quickly tire of being asked questions that they cannot answer. The person setting the questions should expect the kids to know most of the answers between them but there need to be enough difficult questions to keep allow individuals or teams to achieve different scores.
The question-setter needs to put themselves in the place of the children they are writing for. It is too easy to use subject matter that is familiar to themselves rather than the kids who will be playing the game. This is a particular problem when setting questions relating to popular culture such as music, movies and television.
It is a good idea to set questions that cover a variety of subjects, although it may have a bias towards those that the children prefer. Here is a list of suggested subjects:
- Animals and nature
- Sports personalities and famous teams
- Stars, planets and space
- Movies and television shows
- Local knowledge
- Toys and games
Suggested Formats for a Quiz for Children
The way that the quiz is played will depend on the kids involved. Most children are more comfortable in teams of two or three because it takes the pressure off them and they enjoy the process of trying to work out the right answer between them.
As well as having questions that cover a number of subjects it is also good to offer a variety of formats. Some questions could be multiple choice, where they have to pick from a list of three or four answers. Others might allow opportunities to win bonus points for providing more detail about the answer.
Some questions should be put to one team at a time, giving them the opportunity to answer before it is passed to the others to have a go. Other questions can be anwered using a quick-fire approach.
There are no shortage of ready-made quizzes for kids available from the internet. However, the quiz that is written specifically for a particular group or event is likely to be more successful because it can be tailored to suit the participants and their preferences. It will make it more fun to prepare and to play and ideally will have the children asking for more.