Remember playing the ABC game on road trips with your family when you were younger? Remember the dreaded Q? You were praying for Dairy Queen or Quaker State Oil because if they didn’t time their arrival with your discovery of a P, you were sunk. That’s how we feel when we get to our letter “Q” activities for “Q” week. Except there are actually plenty of words that can help us teach that fun KWA sound. If you want to level up, it’s a good idea to partner Q with U every time you write it, since they only separate to say “Qatar”. 

Letter “Q” Activities For “Q” Week 

Try some of these letter “Q” activities to get you started:

Quack Like Ducks 

Pretend to be a family of ducks and play “follow the leader”, saying “Quack, quack, waddle, waddle” over and over again. Go visit the ducks at a pond and listen to them quacking. Record the sound and try to imitate it. Oh, and by the way, what do you get when you put three ducks in a box? A box of quackers!

“Five Little Ducks” is fun to sing with little ones if you have toy ducks (stuffed or rubber ducks) to give to each child as the ducks go out to play. When the daddy duck says “Quack, quack, quack,” at the end, the children can help their ducklings come waddling back. Repeat. 

Pretend To Be Queasy 

If you’re ready for a break, pretend that everyone is queasy and sick and that you have to quarantine the house. Make a big quarantine sign and then decide what things you will do during the quarantine. Play games, make special treats, spend lots of time in bed reading stories together or coloring. 

Learn About Quarts 

Fill a quart jar with water using measuring cups. How many cups does it take to fill a quart? What other things could you fill a quart jar with? Could you eat or drink a whole quart of water? Or milk? Or applesauce? Marshmallows? Put a marshmallow in the quart jar every time you clean up your toys during the week or every time you say please or thank you or every time you complete some other goal you have. Then make a stick house out of the quart of marshmallows and eat a few at the end.

Quarter Games 

Cutting a pie or an apple into 4 pieces, demonstrate how much a quarter is. Talk about how many quarters you need to have to make one whole. Practice dividing things into quarters. 

Explain that 4 quarter coins make one whole dollar. Then play the game where you roll a die and get that number of quarters. As soon as you have 4 quarters, you can trade them in for a dollar. Unlike playing with nickels and the pennies, all money must be returned. Or you can use this to hand out allowance. And contrary to my husband’s belief, having money and dice on the same table does not constitute gambling.

Kings And Queens 

Read stories about queens such as Snow White, The Queen of Style, A Hat for the Queen. Talk about the Queens that live today and find pictures of them. Each of you can pretend to be a different king or queen with crowns and costumes for royalty and have a tea party or a ball.

Make A Quesadilla Snack

Gather several possible ingredients and toppings for quesadillas and have each child make their own.  What other toppings could you put on a quesadilla? What if you were making a quesadilla for dessert? Here’s a basic recipe to start with:

Chicken Quesadillas

Ingredients: 
16 flour tortillas
1 16-ounce can refried beans
1 package taco seasoning mix
1/2 pound chopped, cooked chicken
2 cups cheddar cheese
Salsa

Instructions: 
1. Combine beans and taco seasoning in a large frying pan.
2. On one half of the tortilla shell layer beans, chicken and cheese. Fold in half and fry on medium heat in frying pan until cheese is melted.
3. Serve with salsa.

Create A Quest 

Go on a quest to find something exciting—either pretend or real. Get out your stick horses or pretend horses, your trumpet, your magic powers or special sword. Be sure to look in all of the places. That’s half the fun! If you call it a quest, even if you’re just looking for pajamas or a favorite toy, it becomes an adventure.  While you’re on your quest, go through some pretend quicksand and help each other out of it. 

Quiet Time 

Practice being quiet for a certain amount of time. In what situations do you need to be quiet (a library, a hospital, restaurants, etc.)? Then practice being loud. Where is being loud appropriate? This is fun to do when singing songs with children. If you sing “Eensy Weensy Spider” as “The Great Big Spider” it automatically becomes a loud song. Then when you sing “eensy weensy” and pretend with your fingers as a very tiny pretend spider, the song becomes very quiet. We do this with “Popcorn Popping” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.

We also use this technique to calm kids down after a rowdy activity. I start by singing one of our favorites with giant actions and a loud voice and then sing it again with really tiny actions. This will make you want to sing it in a tiny voice and by the end of the song, we are calmed down. If not, sing it tiny again. And if by then they’re still not calmed and quieted down, I can only pray for you. 

Having Fun With Preschool Letter “Q” Activities 

I hope you enjoyed these letter “Q” activities! Have you tried them out at home yet? Or have any other ideas for “Q week”? Let us know in the comments! Remember that the object in all of this is to have some fun with your children and help them learn a little at the same time. If the kids are getting bored or lose interest, drop what you are doing and head for the sandbox.

Originally published April 19, 2006 in the Crossroads Journal.