Lesson Plans with a Letter in Mind: Letter D, Kindergarten and Preschool Age Lesson

Lesson Plan for Letter D d: On your lined school paper, write a capital D and three dotted capital D's. Have your student trace these and try to write at least two on their own; repeat with lowercase letter. You may need to help your student correctly hold their pencil, or even help them to trace and shape the letters if writing is a new skill.

Provide your student with a page from a large print word search puzzle. Write the letter D, at the top, and circle one D on the puzzle. Have the student circle all remaining D's. Make it fun, like a treasure hunt. When they are done, double check their work. Be sure to praise their effort. A fun activity to try next is to connect the dots. Draw a line that connects all of the circled D's. This is a great hand-eye coordination activity.

Animal: A couple great animal words for this letter are DUCK and DOG; however the most popular D animal is the DINOSAUR. Duck and dog are short and easy to write. Dinosaurs can be a great theme to last for a whole week or more. Most public libraries have a large selection of books in the children's section. Dinosaurs are great fun to imitate, stomping around, roaring. What did they eat? Can you draw one? Introduce the word Paleontologist - a person who studies prehistoric life, like dinosaurs. Talk about fossils and dinosaur bones. You can even have a mock excavation with paint brushes and plastic dinosaurs in the back yard.

Sight Words: These are words that the student should eventually memorize, by sight. Do, Dog Make 2 flash cards of each word. Play games with the cards,
such as memory. Re-use the sight word flash cards every lesson, and add to them as you progress through these lessons. Memorization of sight words aid reading speed and comprehension.

Snack Idea: A great snack idea for this letter is any dairy product- such as cheese, yogurt or milk. Talk about what dairy products are, where they come from, and how important they are while you are growing.

Color or Shape: This lesson there isn't a set color or shape. Study DOTS, of all sizes, tiny to huge. Make dotted pictures, do connect the dot picture and play bingo. Where are dots found? On animals? Stars at night? Freckles? Use a bingo dobber or stickers to make some dotted artwork.

Body Part or Movement: This lesson uses the body movement of ducking. Take an exercise break and do some duck-duck-goose, or limbo. Practice bending and ducking under things.

Music or Reading: For letter D, read about Doctors and Dentist. Has your student been to a Doctor or Dentist before? What is a Doctor/Dentist? When do you go see them? Where do they work?

Fun Activity: There are many creative things that can be done with this lesson's letter. Making drums is a great activity. You can make drums with paper and cardboard boxes, or just use a few pots and pans with spoons. (I find large plastic bowls make a more tolerable level of sound) Practice marching with the drums, keeping to a rhythm. Count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 at a steady pace. Try different patterns of drumming. Be creative.

There are other ways to include this lessons letter into your day. Do you know anyone whose name starts with D? Put labels on anything in the house or schoolroom that starts with D. Make posters with the letter D and anything that starts with it. Have fun with your student, use positive reinforcement, and enjoy!

Be sure to check out my content page for all of the lessons A-Z and a guide for "Lesson Plans with a Letter in Mind"
Guide to lesson plans Lesson plan Aa