Question: What the Hell is This?

qz

Probably it’s an issue of insufficient sleep, but I can’t figure out this preschooler worksheet. If the pictured item starts with a Q, you’re supposed to draw a line to the queen; if it starts with a Z, you’re supposed to draw a line to the zebra. We got zipper, quilt, and question mark, but what is that fourth thing?

26 thoughts on “Question: What the Hell is This?

  1. Jess

    It’s not a product of insufficient sleep–I’m well-rested, and it took me awhile to figure it out too. But I think it’s a zero.

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  2. jen

    it has to be zero or starting with a Z since you’ve already got 2 Q items.

    First you have to suspend logical thought and stop assuming that the illustrators and editors who make these things are even smart enough to draw the lines themselves ;) Okay scratch that, I bet illustrators were not even involved so much as a book of free clip art.

    I’m putting too much thought into it already, aren’t I?

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  3. Penny

    How odd. It’s…a doorhandle with out the knob thing. Or, a useless keychain. I would never have guessed “zero.” Clearly this activity needs revision.

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  4. Omaha Mama

    That is one sucky zero. I was thinking earring – but that doesn’t start with either q or z. I HATE the feeling of when I don’t know the answer on a preschool worksheet. Unfortunately, it has happened more than once.

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  5. Mommy Daisy

    I’d go with the “zero” just because there are already 2 “Q” things. You’re more likely to get that right then.

    I hate when these stupid worksheets have crazy pictures. We get these all the time when I’m tutoring. I mostly work with the K-2nd graders. Some days I have to walk around and ask all the other adults. And some days we never figure a certain picture out. WHY do they make this stuff so difficult? Maybe just to make us adults feel useless once in a while.

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  6. Jana

    Thank goodness your other readers are smart because I thought it was the steam-release piece on a Tupperware lid. My poor child is going to flunk kindergarten since I’m such a dunce.

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  7. brandy

    Seriously? I’m a teacher and struggled with that. Actually, if I’m going to be honest, I will say that I never figured out it was a zero until I read the comments. Sigh. What a kick to the ego. ;)

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  8. desperate housewife

    This might actually merit a discussion with the teacher. Who would hand out such an asinine worksheet?’Cause this is thirteen adults so far, counting you, that would never look at that illustration and connect it with the number zero. Were there seriously no other worksheets to be found that were superior to this?

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  9. Erica

    Seriously, that is the suckiest zero I’ve ever seen.

    Perhaps a parent-teacher conference in is order… “Mr/Ms Teacher? Are you smoking crack?”

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  10. jen

    ha! I got my husband over here and he sat and stared at the screen (I didn’t give him any hints beforehand) and cocked his head to the side like the dog when he’s confused, and said “it looks like a hemorrhoid seat.”

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  11. Swistle

    I think you guys must be right, and it must be INTENDED to be a zero. But that is a crappy, crappy zero. Looks like a deviled egg.

    There is more of the page than I photographed. Another drawing is of a quail. You know, because what preschooler doesn’t recognize a quail?

    The workbook was a gift from my mother-in-law, who tends to favor the “whatever I find at the Dollar Store or Walmart” curriculum. This book has some good stuff and some iffy stuff and some WTH stuff.

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  12. jonniker

    Honestly, the best I could come up with was guitar pick, which starts with neither q nor z, so I’m shocked that other people came up with zero, seriously. I’m super-impressed.

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  13. Kelsey

    I taught at a school where I was required to do reams and reams of these sorts of phonics sheets with my first graders (well they were more complicated than matching, but similiar in idea). I would always go through at explain what all the pictures were first — things like mug and cap and mitt(rather than cup and hat and baseball glove) were always tricky.

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  14. Kelli in the Mirror

    Oddly enough, most of my daycare kids do recognize a quail, just because it’s either that or a queen on most Q sheets. Sometimes a quilt or a quarter. They have more trouble with the quarter than anything.

    Reply
  15. spryngtree

    I don’t think its a zero. It sounds crazy but I believe it may be a quoit. See this site for a picture:

    http://www.mastersgames.com/cat/pub/steel-quoits.htm

    real quoits (as opposed to the rope ones that a preschooler might conceivably have seen) are that sort of egg shape with a hole.

    I have no idea why the writers would assume that a child had ever seen or heard of a quoit, since I would suspect that most adult americans haven’t. Maybe the book isn’t published here?

    I wanted to go along with Zero though because the idea of possibly being a quoit bothered me so much, plus it does skew the items firmly toward the queen and the poor Zebra only gets one thing. That seems so unfair. (but then again I guess she is the queen).

    Maybe its a Zulu Sheild? A stringless Zither? Or maybe your dad is right and its a zygote.

    Reply

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