Butterfly or ladybug?Both are insects with six legs.
Dolphin or whale?Both are mammals that come up to breathe air.
Farm animals or zoo animals?
Frog or turtle?A frog is an amphibian and a turtle is a reptile.
Fur or feathers?Birds are the only living animals with feathers.
Giraffe or zebra?Both live on the grasslands of Africa.
Hamster or guinea pig?Both are rodents, and the guinea pig is the bigger one.
Hold a worm or hold a snail?
Koala or sloth?
Long-neck dinosaur or three-horn dinosaur?The long-necked sauropods and the three-horned Triceratops all ate plants.
Monkey or elephant?
One big pet or three tiny pets?
Owl or eagle?Most owls hunt at night and eagles hunt by day.
Penguin or flamingo?Both are birds, but only the flamingo can fly.
Pet a goat or brush a pony?
Pet fish or pet bird?
Pet that talks or pet that does tricks?
Polar bear or panda?Both are bears. Polar bears live in the Arctic and giant pandas live in China.
Puppy or kitten?
Seal or otter?
Shark or octopus?A shark is a fish. An octopus has eight arms and no bones.
Show all 204 questions (183 more)
Snacks and lunch 18
Apple slices or carrot sticks?
Chicken noodle soup or tomato soup?
Chocolate milk or strawberry milk?
Cupcake or donut?
Dessert first or dessert last?
Eat lunch inside or eat lunch outside?
Eat the frosting first or save the frosting?
Grapes or strawberries?
Mac and cheese or grilled cheese?
Noodles with sauce or noodles with butter?
Pizza day or taco day?
Pretzels or crackers?
Red apple or green apple?
Snow cone or fruit smoothie?
Soup for breakfast or pancakes for dinner?
String cheese or cheese cubes?
Triangle sandwich or square sandwich?
Watermelon or orange slices?
Recess and outdoors 34
Be the referee or be a player?
Be the seeker or be the hider?
Bike or pogo stick?
Blocks or marble run?
Blow bubbles or spin a hoop?
Build a sand castle or hunt for seashells?
Campfire songs or campfire stories?
Capture the flag or sharks and minnows?
Catch fireflies or skip rocks?
Climb a tree or climb a hill?
Collect rocks or collect leaves?
Fly a kite or draw with chalk?
Freeze tag or flashlight tag?
Grow flowers or grow pumpkins?
Jump in puddles or jump in leaves?
Jump rope or bean bag toss?
Kick a ball or throw a ball?
Kickball or four square?
Make up a game or play a classic?
Monkey bars or climbing wall?
Parachute day or scooter board day?
Park picnic or backyard picnic?
Rainbow after rain or first snow of winter?
Rake leaves or shovel snow?
Red light, green light or duck, duck, goose?
Relay race or obstacle course?
Simon says or follow the leader?
Skateboard or scooter?
Snow fort or snow angel?
Straight slide or twisty slide?
Swings or sandbox?
Tag or races?
Tire swing or seesaw?
Win the race or finish together?
School day 25
Adding or subtracting?
Art or music?
Class pet or class garden?
Computer lab or science lab?
Count by fives or count by tens?Counting by tens reaches 100 in ten steps. Counting by fives takes twenty.
Desk or carpet spot?
Field day or class picnic?
First day of school or last day of school?
Front of the bus or back of the bus?
Gym class or library day?
Line leader or caboose?
Made-up stories or true stories?Made-up stories are fiction and true ones are nonfiction.
Math or reading?
New pencil or new eraser?
Pajama day or crazy hair day?
Picture books or chapter books?
Read alone or read with a buddy?
Read aloud or silent reading?
Science or social studies?
Show and tell or read to the class?
Spelling test or math quiz?
Times tables or long division?
Work alone or work with a partner?
Write a story or tell a story?
Zoo field trip or museum field trip?
Colors and art 19
Coloring book or blank paper?
Crayons or colored pencils?
Cut and glue or trace and color?
Draw a rainbow or draw a rocket?
Draw animals or draw people?
Finger paint or paint brush?
Finish one drawing or start three drawings?
Glitter or stickers?
Inside the lines or outside the lines?
Light blue or dark blue?
Neon or pastel?
Orange or sky blue?
Origami or paper airplanes?
Paint or clay?
Pink or purple?
Primary colors or secondary colors?Art class teaches red, yellow and blue as the primary colors. Orange, green and purple are the secondary colors.
Red plus blue or red plus white?Red and blue mix to make purple. Red and white mix to make pink.
Spots or stars?
Stripes or zigzags?
Pretend and magic 21
Astronaut or deep-sea diver?
Be a giant or be ant-size?
Breathe underwater or jump over houses?
Candy house or bounce house?
Cape or mask?
Dragon or robot?
Fairy or elf?
Lemonade river or pudding pond?
Live in a castle or live in a treehouse?
Magic wand or magic hat?
Mermaid or genie?
No more chores or no more homework?
Pirate or knight?
Robot helper or talking dog?
Secret tunnel or secret tower?
Springy legs or stretchy arms?
Stay a kid or be a grown-up?
Talk to animals or talk to toys?
Unicorn or flying pony?
Visit the dinosaurs or visit the future?
Wizard or inventor?
Sight words 29
Apple or cake?
Big cake today or little cake every day?
Big dog or little dog?
Bird or fish?
Blue or green?
Bread or corn?
Draw a house or draw a horse?
Duck or chicken?
Go fast or go far?
Green grass or white snow?
Horse or cow?
Hot bread or cold milk?
Live on a farm or live on a boat?
Make a cake or make a toy?
Morning or night?
Open a box or open a letter?
Pig or sheep?
Rabbit or squirrel?
Read or write?
Red or yellow?
Run or ride?
Sing a song or play a game?
Sing or draw?
Sit in the sun or sit by the fire?
Sleep in a bed or sleep in a nest?
Under a tree or under a table?
Wash the dog or wash the car?
Wind or rain?
Work first or play first?
Middle school 37
After-school sport or after-school club?
Algebra or geometry?
Band or choir?
Carry everything or stop at your locker?
Chess club or robotics club?
Color-coded notes or plain notes?
Cooking class or coding class?
Early to class or right at the bell?
First period or last period?
Flash cards or practice problems?
Fractions or decimals?One half and 0.5 are the same number.
Graphic novel or audiobook?
Half day or late start?
Historical fiction or science fiction?
Homework at school or homework at home?
Lab day or documentary day?
Mechanical pencil or wooden pencil?
Multiple choice or short answer?
Neat locker or messy locker?
One big binder or five notebooks?
Open-book test or take-home test?
Orchestra or drama club?
Partner project or group of four?
Pick your partner or assigned partner?
Pop quiz today or big test Friday?
Present first or present last?
Same lunch table or new lunch table?
Science fair or talent show?
Seat by the window or seat by the door?
Student council or yearbook club?
Study with music or study in quiet?
Summer reading list or summer math packet?
Top locker or bottom locker?
Track team or swim team?
Twin day or decades day?
Write an essay or make a slideshow?
Youngest in the school or oldest in the school?
How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every card is a pair of options of one to four words, so both fit on a button and a child can hold both in mind after hearing them once. Each pair was read against the site's family-safe rule and the stricter rule for children's pages: nothing meant to frighten, no romance, no dares, no strangers, no phones, no risky food, no real people, no brand names, no holidays, and nothing that puts a child on the spot about their body, family, home or money. The whole list was run through a word blocklist on 2026-09-19 and came back clean. Every pair was compared on 2026-09-19 with the 22 other two-option decks on this site, including the main this or that deck, the icebreaker deck, the older this or that generator deck and every would you rather deck: no pair appears in any of them. In the Sight words group, every word on every card is on the Dolch word list: the 220 service words and the 95 nouns that Edward William Dolch compiled for early readers, with no plural or other added ending. Each word on 2026-09-19 was checked against the 95 nouns as printed at https://sightwords.com/sight-words/dolch/ (which lists goodbye and has no goat) and the 220 service words as printed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolch_word_list. The Wikipedia page was not used for the nouns: its text says the noun list has 95 words, but the list it printed that day was headed 97 words, left out goodbye and added goat, woman and women. An earlier card, Horse or goat, was removed on that check and replaced with Horse or cow, and One big cake or ten little cakes became Big cake today or little cake every day. The other groups use plain nouns and are not limited to that list. Sixteen cards carry a one-line fact in the printed list. These are elementary science, math and art facts from general knowledge, such as a frog being an amphibian, and none is a statistic. No card has a right answer. Difficulty is our judgment: easy is a gut pick in short words, medium takes a beat, and hard is a pair that splits a class. The Middle school cards were written for grades 6 to 8, and 20 cards from the other groups are also tagged for that filter. Licence: own work
How it works
These this or that questions for kids are 204 short pairs for ages 5 to 14, such as Puppy or kitten and Swings or sandbox, with a Middle school filter for grades 6 to 8. Put a pair on the board, ask for hands and press an answer once per hand. The whole list sits under the deck.
Read the full guide
Ask for hands, then press once per hand
Say both options, ask for hands on each, and press an answer once per hand. The card answers with a count and a percent for each side. Press Next question for another pair. Counts stay on this phone or computer.
How the Sight words group was checked
Sight words holds 29 cards built only from the Dolch list: 220 service words and 95 nouns compiled from the children's books of the 1930s. Goat is not on the list, so the farm card reads Horse or cow. Middle school, the last topic, holds 57 this or that questions for middle school: 37 written for grades 6 to 8 plus 20 from other groups. Press Topic to reach it.
Need this or that questions for teachers? Run a silent morning meeting round: hands on heads for the first option, hands on knees for the second, and one child counts each side.
Let kindergartners and younger siblings point at a button. In a 2019 PLOS ONE study, children under five who answered aloud picked the second option 85 percent of the time. When they pointed, they chose evenly.
Start the youngest on Easy, 85 gut picks. Hold the 32 Hard pairs, such as Win the race or finish together, until a class can give a because.
Questions and answers
What ages are these this or that questions for?
Ages 5 to 14, kindergarten to grade 8. Early readers can start on Sight words, since the Dolch list runs from pre-primer to third grade. For grades 6 to 8, press Middle school, then Hard for 25 pairs such as Present first or present last.
Can I print or copy these kids this or that questions?
Yes. Pick a topic, then on the end card press Copy the list for a slide or Print for slips. In the list, sixteen pairs add a one-line fact, such as: A frog is an amphibian and a turtle is a reptile.
Is the deck safe to put on a classroom screen?
Yes. No card names a holiday, a brand, a real person or anything meant to frighten, and none asks about a child's family, home or money. Nothing is typed and nobody signs in.