Early Years Activities for the Letter Dd

Hands-on Activities to Promote Letter Recognition of the Alphabet

Oct 19, 2009

Teaching the letter Dd is made easy with these fun-filled learning activities for the classroom.

Dog, doughnut and dragon all begin with the letter Dd. Every child in the classroom has had some type of exposure to at least one word beginning with Dd before walking through the classroom door. Here are some fun and educational activities that will build on this knowledge the children come to class already knowing about the letter Dd.

Letter Dd Items From Home

Ask children to bring in items to stay in the classroom for the week. Teachers can use these items throughout the week as examples or as in centre based activities. Some items from home can be a miniature deer, dice, dime, dinosaur, dish, dog, doll, dolphin, duck, domino or drum.

Ask the students to colour a picture of three Dd words and write the word of the item on the bottom of the page. Combine the pages to make a memory book. Ask each student to share his or her book with a classmate and see if the classmate can remember all three pictures in order.

Letter Dd Activities

Daisy Letter Dd Activity: Cut out a yellow circle approximately 15 cm in diameter. Cut out eight to ten petals for each student. Print an uppercase D on the yellow circle and glue paper squares or seeds on the letter.

Dog Letter Activity: Cut out a dog shape. Print a lowercase d on the paper. Have student glue squares or beads on the letter. Ask student to give an example of a word starting with the letter d and write the word on the dog.

Dinner Place mat Art: Using large construction paper glue on a dinner place mat template that the student has coloured. Laminate the mat for each student. The mat can be used at school during lunches or sent home.

Letter Dd Songs: DLTK teach.com has four letter D songs that are worth singing in classroom. Songs with titles of "Do You Know The Doughnut Man" and A Big 'Ol Dinosaur" are songs that students will love to sing.

Foods to Taste-Test: Here are some examples of foods the class can enjoy that begin with the letter Dd. Foods such as: doughnuts, dip for raw vegetables, date square and danish.

Play Dough: Using playdough have students make different letters of the alphabet. Ask students to make the letter Dd and take a picture of the student and his or her play dough letters. Create a bulletin board with the pictures.

Learning new songs, tasting doughnuts and making a dinner place mat are all enjoyable ways of learning about the letter Dd. Making those connections between a letter to objects found in a child's world gives meaning when learning a new letter of the alphabet.

Anselmo, Sandra; Rollins, Pamela; and Schuckman Rita. R is for Rainbow: Developing Young Children's Thinking Skills Through the Alphabet, USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. 1986.

The copyright of the article Early Years Activities for the Letter Dd in Preschool is owned by Jackie Parsons. Permission to republish Early Years Activities for the Letter Dd in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.