It’s been cold and rainy the past few days, and I had to cancel my Outdoor Musical Storytime last Tuesday. Today we were back in time to celebrate the letter Q. I had also done an abridged version of this storytime last Wednesday night, when most of the families arrived late due to the weather.

Since Q is almost always paired with the letter U(in English anyway), I wrote the two letters together on a piece of paper at the beginning (I’ve misplaced my little whiteboard!). Then I asked the kids if they knew any words starting with Q. They suggested quarter, queen, quack, quick, and quiet.

Here are the stories, songs, and activities we did:

Books:

Quackers by Liz Wong

Adorable story about a cat named Quackers who thinks he is a duck, like all of the other ducks that he lives with, even though he sometimes struggles to fit in. He is very surprised to meet another cat named Mittens, who introduces him to foods and activities that cats like, but soon finds he misses his duck friends. In the end, he finds a way to enjoy both worlds. The kids thought it was enormously funny that the book starts out by saying that Quackers is a duck.

Queenie Quail Can’t Keep Up by Jane Whittingham; illustrated by Emma Pedersen

Sweet book about a young quail who always falls behind her large family, because she often stops to look at treasures along the way. The family is constantly fussing at her to keep up, until one day her curiosity saves them from a sneaky cat. The repeated “bob, bob, bobbing,” “tap, tap tapping” and “hurry, hurry, hurrying” kept the kids engaged, as did the cute, colorful illustrations.

Be Quiet, Mike by Leslie Patricelli

I gave out egg shakers and the other instruments we use for our instrument play-along before reading this book, and had the kids shake along in rhythm. It’s a cute, rhyming story about a monkey who is always being told to “Be Quiet!” until he creates his own drum set. The kids enjoyed chiming in on the repeated, “Be Quiet, Mike!” refrain.

Songs:

Five Little Ducks

I did this song to go along with Quackers. I used the Monkey Mitt, which comes with five bright yellow ducks that stick to the glove with Velcro. I had a small enough crowd for my Family Storytime that the kids could take turns removing a duck from the mitt each time, although we had to double up for some of the ducks. I sing the Raffi version, which you can find here.

Five little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother Duck cried, “Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!”
But only four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks went out one day…

Three little ducks went out one day…

Two little ducks went out one day…

One little duck went out one day…

Sad Mother Duck went out one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother Duck cried, “Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack!”
And all of the five little ducks came back!

Two Little Blackbirds

I did this one at Outdoor Musical Storytime to go along with Queenie Quail Can’t Keep Up, as well as the Q word “Quiet.” Always a hit!

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill, (Hold up both thumbs)
One named Jack, and the other named Jill.
Fly away, Jack! (Put one thumb behind your back)
Fly away, Jill! (Put the other thumb behind your back)
Come back, Jack! (Bring the first thumb out in front).
Come back, Jill! (Bring the second thumb out in the front).

Two little blackbirds sitting on a cloud,
One was quiet, and the other was loud (I make my voice as loud and obnoxious as possible each time I sing the word “Loud!”)
Fly away, Quiet!
Fly away, Loud!
Come back, Quiet!
Come back, Loud!

Two little blackbirds sitting in the snow.
One flew fast!
And the other flew slow!…

Two little blackbirds sitting on a gate.
One was early,
And the other was…late!…  (I like to drag the pauses out as long as possible before saying “Late!” until the kids are all yelling it out.)

I’m a California Quail

We sang this one with play scarves at Family Storytime, and I had the kids put their scarves on their heads to mimic the feathers of the California Quail, which happens to be the state bird (it’s also a very common sight at the park where we have our storytime). I held up a picture of the bird for the kids to see before we sang this song, which is to the tune of I’m a Nut.

I’m a California Quail,
See me walking on the trail.
Got six feathers for a crown (put the back of your hand on your forehead and wiggle your fingers),
See it bobbing up and down (bob your head up and down).

Caw-CAW-Caw! Caw-CAW-Caw!

This is Quick, Quick, Quick

I did this simple rhyme with the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime:

This is quick, quick, quick, (shake parachute quickly)
This is slow, slow, slow, (shake parachute slowly)
This is high, high, high, (raise parachute up)
This is low, low, low. (lower parachute down).

Letter Q

I was struggling to find a good Letter Q song, so I wrote this one to sing for our instrument play-along.

[C] Oh, Letter [F] Q,
[G7] What can it [C] do?
It just can’t [F] be
[G7] Away from [C] U!

[C] Without U, there is no [F] Question.
[G7] Without U, no qualit-[C]y.
No Quiet walks [F] along the shore,
No [G7] Quests of braver-[C]y.
No Quilts to keep you [F] warm at night,
No [G7] Quick trips to the [C] zoo.
There’s nothing quite as [F] lonesome
As [G7] Q is without [C] U.

[C] Oh, Letter [F] Q,
[G7] What can it [C] do?
It just can’t [F] be
[G7] Away from [C] U!

[C] Q is such a quirky [F] letter.
[G7] It is useless on its [C] own.
Without U it cannot [F] Qualify,
It [G7] cannot stand a-[C]lone.
Q would be in such a [F] Quandary,
Without [G7] you to make it [C] sound.
I Quake to think what [F] Q would be
[G7] Without U [C] around!

[C] Oh, Letter [F] Q,
[G7] What can it [C] do?
It just can’t [F] be
[G7] Away from [C] U!

Stay & Play: Sticky Note Quilts

For this easy Stay & Play, I put out different colors of sticky notes, large white paper, and markers. I had brought a quilt to show the kids how they featured different patterns. They seemed to enjoy arranging their sticky notes on the paper, and then decorating them with the markers.

Do you have any favorite picture books or songs featuring the letter Q? Please share them in the comments below.