Play Acting Song · Elementary Music · Grades PreK–2
The complete Naughty Kitty Cat lyrics, the quarter rest meowing game, and a full teaching guide for PreK through 2nd grade. Quarter rest, fa solfège, high/low pitch, loud/soft dynamics — and one of the most hilarious activities in early elementary music.
Full lyrics
The complete Naughty Kitty Cat lyrics. Short, cheeky, and instantly loveable — the quarter rest falls three times and is filled with a meow. Young children find this hilarious, which turns out to be the whole point.
About this song
Naughty Kitty Cat is one of the best songs in the library for teaching the quarter rest — and it works because of the meow. Show the cat picture, sing the song, and fill each rest with a meow. Students immediately understand that something real is happening in that silence. The rest isn't empty; the cat is speaking.
Deborah demonstrates a variety of meows — high and low, loud and soft, tiny kitten meows. Young children find this hilarious, and the hilarity is the lesson: they're experiencing high/low pitch and loud/soft dynamics before those concepts are ever formally named.
"Pretend the cat has laryngitis and lost his voice. When he meows, no sound comes out. Then put the rhythms on the board and add a quarter rest for the silent meow."
— Deborah Skydell Pasternack, The Singing ClassroomThe quarter rest teaching sequence is elegant: students fill the rest with a meow → the cat gets laryngitis, the meow goes silent → the rest symbol appears on the board. The abstract notation now has a concrete, body-based meaning they won't forget.
The song also contains fa — though at PreK–2 level students aren't formally learning the syllable yet. File it away: when they reach fa instruction later, you can remind them of this song. They'll already know it in their voices.
Teaching guide
The full video demonstration is inside a Singing Classroom subscription. Here's the core teaching sequence.
Show the cat picture while singing, and fill each quarter rest with a meow. Students will immediately understand the game — the rest is where the cat speaks. Demonstrate a variety of meows: high and low, loud and soft, tiny kitten meows. Young children find this hilarious, and you can use it to introduce high/low pitch and loud/soft dynamics right from the start.
Ask students to volunteer their own meows. If things get too silly, ask who can do the most realistic meow — when someone does a good one, pretend to be shocked and look around for the real cat who must be hiding in the room. For quiet: ask for tiny kitten meows. This gives you a natural, built-in classroom management tool.
Tell students the cat has laryngitis and lost his voice. When he meows, no sound comes out. Have them pretend to be the cat — they mime the meow silently. Then put the rhythms on the board and add a quarter rest to show the silent meow. The rest is now concrete and memorable rather than abstract.
Have students fill the quarter rest with an unpitched percussion instrument instead of a meow. Finger cymbals or triangle work particularly well — their bright, clear tone makes the rest feel like a real musical event. This also connects the quarter rest to instrumental playing.
Common questions
The full lyrics are: "Naughty kitty cat / You are very fat / You have butter on your whiskers / Naughty kitty cat." The song is just four lines — and the quarter rest falls three times, each filled with a meow. Most PreK and K students have it memorized within a single class period.
Naughty Kitty Cat works best for PreK through 2nd grade. PreK and kindergarteners love the play acting game and the dramatic delivery of "and I know who did that!" First and 2nd graders can engage with the play acting at a more sophisticated level and can also work with fa in a solfège context.
The song has both Spanish and American folk roots — it appears in both traditions with slight variations. This cross-cultural background makes it a natural starting point for a brief conversation with older PreK and K students about where songs come from and how they travel between languages and cultures. It's a light but genuine multicultural connection that doesn't require a deep dive to be meaningful.
The quarter rest falls three times in the song and is filled with a meow — making it immediately physical and concrete for young students. The sequence moves from meow → silent meow (laryngitis) → quarter rest symbol on the board. By the time they see the notation, they already know from their own bodies exactly what it means. The surrounding rhythms are quarter notes and eighth notes, so the context is clean and focused.
More songs for PreK–2
The classic counting out chant. Clear AA form and tiri-tiri — one of the most useful chants in the library.
See teaching guide →The beloved circle game with play acting and motions. Perfect companion song to Naughty Kitty Cat for the youngest grades.
See teaching guide →Counting down play acting song with motions. A natural pairing with Naughty Kitty Cat for early elementary animal songs.
See teaching guide →The real problem
Every teacher knows this feeling. You find a song, try it on Monday, and something goes sideways — the kids don't engage, you're not sure how to introduce it, the lesson loses momentum. It's not that the song was wrong. You just didn't have a clear picture of how it actually goes.
That's what makes The Singing Classroom different. Every song in the library — including this one — has a full video of Deborah teaching it with real students. You don't have to guess how to introduce it, how to structure the activity, or how to handle the tricky moments. You watch it. Then you teach it.
150+ songs. Every one demonstrated. No more hoping it works — you already know it will.
One subscription gives you the complete Singing Classroom library — 150+ folk songs and singing games, every one with Deborah’s full video demonstration, teaching guide, and animated game instructions. Naughty Kitty Cat is just one of the songs waiting for you.
$19.95/month · $219.95/year
7-day free trial · access everything from day one
Start Your Free 7-Day Trial →Credit card required · Cancel anytime