The extent to which free play versus sequenced questioning conditions facilitates preschoolers' associative fluency was investigated in this study. Twenty-four children (12 boys and 12 girls, with a mean age of 50.7 months) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: free play, sequenced questioning, and control. In the sequenced questioning condition, children presented with stimulus objects (an empty wooden spool, a blue pipe cleaner, a wooden clothespin, and wine bottle cork) were asked to describe, classify, and contrast them. Children in the free play conditions were presented simultaneously with two of the objects and were instructed to play with them in any way they liked. While children in the first two conditions were interacting with the objects, the control children engaged in conversation with the experimenter for ten minutes and then were asked, with the rest of the children, for novel uses of one of the objects. In general, children in the sequenced questioning condition generated significantly more novel responses than children in the other two conditions. No significant difference was observed between the play and control conditions. It was suggested that the sequenced questioning technique can be an effective teaching strategy in preschool classrooms for facilitating children's creative and cognitive development. (Author/MP)