In any alphabet theme, certain letters are a little more difficult to work with. Letter Q is always one of those. In our A-Zoo Animals theme, Q is for Quail. I like that we have quail for letter Q. It’s a different animal, and a unique one.
Letter P & Letter Q don’t have as many activities and share a day in the A-Zoo theme.
Quails are such interesting birds to look at!
What do you know about quails? Honestly, I knew nothing. I learn along with my kids! We learned that quails lay 10-20 eggs. They can only fly a short distance. They’re small and have a plume on the top of their heads. Quails are ground birds and live in the desert and grasslands.
Since quails lay lots of eggs, we made a sensory bin with plastic eggs and the letter tile manipulatives that came in our Mother Goose Time kit this month. Sensory play is always a hit and this was no exception. Any time we can get letters involved, all the better! My group enjoyed hiding a letter in an egg or under the rice and having a friend hunt for it.
The suggested activity was “Q Hunt”. Put each letter tile inside each plastic egg. make sure one is the Q tile. Build a nest out of the materials in the room. Invite a child to use a spoon to carry a “quail egg” from one side of the room to the nest. Look inside the egg, does it have the Q?”
We might get to that activity yet, it would be fun and involve gross motor skills. With an infant in care, sometimes open ended activities and materials fit in better for us and the sensory bin is getting lots of use. Hunting for the Q will keep them busy!
I found this informative video about quail. It goes kind of fast so I usually show the video and then we watch it again and pause it to explain big words or about the idea that is being presented.
Sand Letters
It’s very satisfying to make letters in kinetic sand with letter molds! I find that sometimes limiting supplies and narrowing it down to one letter and a small amount of sand is more effective than the whole alphabet in the sensory bin with a lot of sand.
I just took a tray with a little and letter Q mold and made it a part of-of the daily center activities. Everyone wanted a try and got some quality time with letter Q!