Interest Inventory, Elementary Edition: 30 Free Questions and Printable Sheets

An elementary interest inventory, given near the start of the year, is a one or two page survey about what each child cares about. It asks about favorite subjects, what they do after school, what they like to read, and what they wish they knew more about. There is nothing to pass and no wrong answer. The teacher reads every sheet and uses it to pick books, write examples, form groups, and start conversations.

What counts as an interest inventory at the elementary level

Three things make a list of questions into an inventory. It asks about the child's own likes, in words a child would use. It covers life outside school as well as inside it: pets, games, sports, shows, and the people they look up to. And somebody uses it. A sheet that goes into a drawer in September and stays there is paperwork.

At this age the format changes with reading level. In kindergarten through second grade, most teachers read each question aloud, and children answer by drawing, circling a picture, or telling an adult who writes it down for them. By third through fifth grade, most students can read and write short answers on their own, so the sheet can carry more open questions.

Close kin to this is the pictorial interest inventory, which shows pictures of tasks instead of written questions. That helps young children and struggling readers answer for themselves.

How it differs from a career interest inventory

A career interest inventory asks what jobs someone might enjoy, then groups the answers by type of work and ties each group to jobs. A widely used example is O*NET's free Interest Profiler, which scores answers across six work interest areas and links each one to job lists. Many districts start tools like it around sixth or seventh grade.

Question

Elementary interest inventory

Career interest inventory

Who takes it

Children in kindergarten to fifth grade

Usually students from sixth or seventh grade up, and adults

What it asks about

Subjects, hobbies, books, and things they wonder about

Work activities, like fixing an engine or caring for patients

Is it scored?

No. The teacher reads it.

Yes, into interest areas

What comes back

Notes for planning lessons, books, and groups

A short profile plus job titles to look up

Who uses the result

The classroom teacher and the family

The student and a school counselor

The inventory a child fills in at this age does not predict a career, and it should not try. A nine-year-old who loves sharks is telling you what to add to the classroom library. What the inventory does build is the habit a career inventory will lean on years later: noticing what you enjoy and saying so out loud.

Building a student interest inventory takes about an hour the first time and almost nothing after that, because you can reuse it every year. Giving it takes roughly 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the grade and on how much you read aloud.

The best time in the year to give one

Give it in the second week of school, once routines have settled but before you plan your first big unit. In the first few days, many kids do not trust you enough yet to write what they like. A month in, you have already picked the books. Then give it twice more: once in January, after winter break, and once in May. Three sheets from the same child show you which interests last and which were a phase.

When a student joins partway through the year, give them the same sheet in their first week. It is a quick way to learn something specific about a new child.

The three question categories that cover every student

Most free lists online mix questions at random. Sorting them into three groups makes sure you hear from every kind of kid: the one who loves school, the one who comes alive at recess, and the one who asks a hundred questions a day.

School interests ask about subjects, books, and how a child likes to learn. Activity interests ask what they do outside school: games, sports, making things, pets, and time with family. Curiosity and challenge questions ask what they wonder about, what they want to get better at, and what feels hard right now. Take about the same number from each group.

Elementary interest inventory questions to copy

Pick 8 to 10 questions for kindergarten through second grade, and 12 to 15 for third through fifth. Every question works read aloud.

School interests

Best for

1. What is your favorite thing to do at school?

All grades

2. Which subject do you look forward to most?

Grades 3 to 5

3. Which subject feels hardest right now?

Grades 3 to 5

4. What is the best book anyone has read to you?

Grades K to 2

5. Do you like made-up stories or true books about real things?

All grades

6. Do you like to work by yourself, with one friend, or in a group?

All grades

7. Draw yourself doing your favorite thing at school.

Grades K to 2

8. If you could teach the class one thing, what would it be?

Grades 3 to 5

9. What helps you pay attention when you are learning?

Grades 3 to 5

10. Would you rather build it, draw it, or write about it?

All grades

Activity interests

Best for

11. What do you like to do after school?

All grades

12. What do you like to do on the weekend?

All grades

13. What games do you like to play, inside or outside?

All grades

14. Do you have a pet, or a pet you wish you had?

All grades

15. What do you like to make: drawings, block towers, food, music, or something else?

All grades

16. Is there a sport you play or want to try?

All grades

17. What show, video, or movie could you watch again and again?

All grades

18. Who do you like to spend time with?

All grades

19. Draw something you are good at.

Grades K to 2

20. What could you talk about for a whole hour?

Grades 3 to 5

Curiosity and challenge

Best for

21. If you could learn about anything at all, what would it be?

All grades

22. What is something you wonder about?

All grades

23. What do you want to get better at this year?

All grades

24. Tell me about something hard you did. How did it feel when you finished?

Grades 3 to 5

25. Do you like puzzles, riddles, or tricky problems?

All grades

26. What job would be fun to try for one day?

All grades

27. Who is someone you look up to, and why?

Grades 3 to 5

28. What would you ask a scientist, an artist, or an astronaut?

Grades 3 to 5

29. What makes you laugh?

All grades

30. What is one thing you want me to know about you?

All grades

Two notes on wording. Ask open questions where you can, but after any question a young child might freeze on, offer a short menu: draw, build, run around, or something else. And keep question 30, or one like it, as the last line. Kids tend to remember it, and it often gets the answer you most needed.

Printable interest inventory: elementary sheets for K to 2 and 3 to 5

Each sheet below fits on one printed page. The K to 2 sheet has 8 questions with space to draw, for you to read aloud. The 3 to 5 sheet has 12 questions with lines to write on. Print this page and keep the sheet you need, or copy the questions into your own document.

Interest inventory, elementary K to 2 sheet

Name: ____________________   Date: ____________

1. What is your favorite thing to do at school?
2. What is the best book anyone has read to you?
3. Draw yourself doing your favorite thing at school.
4. What do you like to do after school?
5. Do you have a pet, or a pet you wish you had?
6. Draw something you are good at.
7. What is something you wonder about?
8. What is one thing you want me to know about you?

Free interest inventory, elementary edition, from pigment.is

Interest inventory, elementary 3 to 5 sheet

Name: ____________________   Date: ____________

1. Which subject do you look forward to most?_______________________________________________
2. Which subject feels hardest right now?_______________________________________________
3. Do you like to work by yourself, with one friend, or in a group?_______________________________________________
4. What do you like to do on the weekend?_______________________________________________
5. Is there a sport you play or want to try?_______________________________________________
6. What could you talk about for a whole hour?_______________________________________________
7. If you could learn about anything at all, what would it be?_______________________________________________
8. What do you want to get better at this year?_______________________________________________
9. What job would be fun to try for one day?_______________________________________________
10. Who is someone you look up to, and why?_______________________________________________
11. What would you ask a scientist, an artist, or an astronaut?_______________________________________________
12. What is one thing you want me to know about you?_______________________________________________

Free interest inventory, elementary edition, from pigment.is

To make it a Google Form: open Google Forms, click Blank form, and title it something like "Interest inventory: elementary, fall". Add each question from the 3 to 5 sheet as a Short answer item, add a Short answer item for the child's name, and click Send to copy the link for your class. Next year, open the form, click the three dots, and choose Make a copy.

Giving it to younger and older grades

For kindergarten through second grade, a printable inventory that the teacher fills in with the child works best. Sit with four or five children at a time during centers, read each question, and let them draw or point while you jot a word or two. Spread it across a few days so nobody sits for longer than ten minutes.

For third through fifth grade, hand out the sheet, read the first two questions together so everyone knows how it works, and let them finish alone. Tell the class they can spell however they like. If a student would rather talk than write, let them answer to you instead. A simple online form also works at this age and puts every answer in one spreadsheet, which makes the next step faster.

The answers are worth the time only if they change something you do in the next month. This is a way to get through 25 sheets in under an hour.

Turning answers into lesson and grouping decisions

Make one class chart. Write names down the left side. Across the top, write the topics that keep coming up: animals, sports, drawing, building, video games, space, cooking. Put a tick for each child. Within ten minutes, patterns show up. Maybe nine kids named animals and six named space.

Use the big clusters for whole-class choices. They decide the next read-aloud, the theme of a set of math word problems, the hook for a science unit, and the topic of a writing prompt.

Use the small clusters for groups. Three kids who love building get the bridge challenge together. For other work, mix interests on purpose.

Use single answers for the relationship. The child who wrote "my grandma's dog" gets asked about the dog on Monday morning. A two-minute talk about something a child told you builds more trust than most get-to-know-you games.

Use questions 3 and 23 for support. The subject that feels hardest and the thing they want to get better at show you where a child already wants help, in their own words.

Reading the answers that are hard to read

Some sheets come back blank, or with "I don't know" or "nothing" on every line. That tells you about the child on that day, so hold off on reading it as a pattern. A week later, ask the same questions out loud, one on one, with the short menu of choices. The child may not have wanted to write, or may not have tried many activities yet. If a child keeps saying they like nothing at all, mention it to your school counselor (the American School Counselor Association sets out what elementary counselors do).

Tracking how a student's interests change across the year

Keep each child's sheet in a folder. When you give it again in January and May, put the old sheet beside the new one. Show children their fall answers in the spring. They love seeing what they wrote, and many will tell you what changed without being asked. Then write a one-line note for each child, such as "Fall: horses, drawing. Spring: horses, chapter books, wants to be a vet." Passed to next year's teacher, that line saves them a week of guessing.

Keep the limits in view. Interests at this age shift quickly, and that is healthy. Use the answers to plan and to connect. Never use them to grade a child or to place them in a reading or math group.

Most templates online are written for classroom teachers. The same questions work at a kitchen table, with a few changes in how you ask them.

Classroom teachers

For a teacher, the inventory is a planning tool and a fast way to know 25 children at once. Use the full method above: three groups, three times a year, one class chart. Before you send anything home, keep privacy in mind. Under FERPA, the federal student privacy law, parents have the right to see their child's education records, so write every note on a sheet as if the family will read it. Never post individual answers on a wall.

Using an elementary interest inventory as a parent

Parents rarely need the printed form. Ask two or three of the questions above at dinner or in the car. Write the answers in a note on your phone. Then share a line or two with your child's teacher at the first conference: "She is obsessed with volcanoes and wants to learn to knit." Teachers welcome that, and it gives them a head start on the same work.

Homeschool families

For a homeschooling parent, the same questions can steer a whole term. Pick one strong interest from each of the three groups and build a unit around it, such as a month on birds that mixes reading, counting, drawing, and a trip outside. Give it again every few months.

Students learning English and kids who have seen less

English learners can answer in their home language, by drawing, or with picture cards. A family member or a bilingual aide can help translate. Colorín Colorado's guide to getting to know English learners suggests learning about a student's background and interests early in the year, which is what this survey is for. A child who has had fewer chances to try clubs, trips, or lessons may write very little. Offer a menu of everyday options, and add a question about what they would like to try, which gives every child something to say.

Which format fits your class

A printable sheet handed out on paper suits kindergarten through second grade best, and for any class where screens are limited. A homemade version built from the 30 questions above is better than most downloads, because you can swap in local details and drop anything that does not fit your class. An online form suits third through fifth grade when you want answers sorted in a spreadsheet. Whatever format you use, the test of a good one is whether you change at least one lesson because of it.

For more ideas to pair with it, see our guides to career exploration for elementary students and career exploration games for elementary students.

Why schools wait until middle school for a formal career interest inventory

Teachers use a student interest inventory in elementary school to know their students and to plan lessons kids want to sit through. A scored career inventory needs things young children do not have yet: enough reading to handle long forms, and enough time around adult work to have opinions about it. That is why it usually shows up in middle school. The student interest inventory page sets out how the scored kind works, and our guide to career exploration for middle schoolers covers what comes next. By high school, our career interest inventory test guide explains what those scored results can and cannot tell a family.

When Interest Exploration Turns Into a Real Career Question, Pigment Picks Up Where This Leaves Off

You just spent an hour working out how to ask a child what they like and what they want to get better at. Few adults stop to ask those questions about their own work. If reading this list made you wonder what your own answers would be, Pigment can help you find out.

Pigment's Career Self-Discovery Assessment is a set of forced-choice questions for adults. It covers your habits at work, from how you pick up new skills to how you make choices, use your time, and work in a team. Then it gives you a 36-page report that suggests roles to explore. It is written for grown-ups, so it is for you now.

Ask Yourself the Questions You Ask Your Students

$79 one time, for a report on how you work best and the kinds of roles to look at next.

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