D is for Delicious! Letter D: Preschool Activities and Lesson Plan
What a joy it is to see your kids discover and learn about the world around them. They begin each day with such enthusiasm and dive into life at full speed. They question, (if only I had a chocolate for every time I have answered “Why?”) and process. Those “ah-ha” moments are sheer bliss. What a great responsibility we have to encourage that curiosity and teach them how to learn. With the next portion of these alphabet lessons, we’ll focus on helping our Littles recognize ways they can investigate their world using their five senses. We start today with this free preschool lesson plan Letter D is for Delicious!
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Alphabet Preschool Lessons
Before we get into the details of today’s plan, I want to mention that I hope your home preschool adventures are going well. I hope that these lesson plans are helpful for you. If you have suggestions for how they could be more helpful, please let me know in the comments below.
If you haven’t seen my quick tips for getting started with successful home preschool, check them out. This is the fourth in our Alphabet Lesson Plan Series. You can find the first three lessons HERE.
Feel free to use and share these plans to talk, sing, read, write, and play your way through the alphabet. These are the foundational habits of raising a strong reader. You can use our full lesson plans, or, of course, pick individual activities to do with the Littles in your life. I am also a budget-friendly Mama, so no worries there: our activities are always easy on the pocketbook.
You can visit the Preschool Lesson Plan Index to see what free plans are published or in the works!
Now, let’s get to it!
Update: You can now get ALL of the Alphabet Lesson Plans, Checklists, and Printables, (plus Bonus Ideas and 75+ exclusive preschool printables!) all in one budget-friendly digital product…A to Z and Beyond! Preschool Curriculum.
INTRODUCTION to Letter D Preschool Lesson Plan
We began by singing our Welcome Song. We were lucky today to have our “big kids” home from school and joining us for Mommy Preschool! As my oldest was the one to introduce us to “Hello to All the Children in the World,” she was really excited to see that we have been learning it together. So, we all sang along voraciously!
PLAY: Pipe Cleaner Letter D
I introduced the shape of capital D. Before preschool, I had cut a few pipe cleaners in half. Now I gave each of the kids two pieces. They then bent and twisted the pipe cleaners to make a big letter D and then a lowercase d. After figuring out those two, they made whatever letters they wanted.
PLAY: Letter D Charades
After learning what D looks like, it was time to practice with what D sounds like. To do so, we played Charades, which was so much fun and a great way to introduce the sound D makes! Kids never tire of this classic game that can be adapted to any topic.
We can use the Letter D Charades Printable that’s included in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST to get your game going! (Click the link to get the charades and other printables sent to your inbox.) First, print out the cards and cut them apart. Then, take turns getting the others to guess what’s on the card by acting. For young kids, you can allow a few sounds if that makes it more fun for them.
Can you guess what word he is acting out that begins with the letter D?
As a challenge, kids can think of their own words to act out that begin with D. The last word I acted out was “discover.” That led us to our next activity. (Younger kids may not guess this word in which case you could just move on without acting it out.)
READ: No One But You
Discover is such a great word! What does it mean to discover? It is so much fun to investigate the world around us. We have been given many tools to make those discoveries. In order to introduce some of the ways we discover the world around us, we read the book No One But You
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This book is affirming prose about discovering the world in the way only you can, through your own senses. The illustrations are beautiful. It is not overtly a “senses” book, which I appreciated as it led to more feeling. The emotion of the book helps the details stick with us. The book led to thinking and discussion about learning about the world.
While most of us loved the book, one of my kids was adamant that “It’s not only you! Lots of people can do that!” 😉 More literal thinkers may appreciate a more literal introduction to the senses, such as My Five Senses
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The sentences in this book are simple and geared toward younger readers. The story can be enhanced with questions and interaction.
TALK: The Five Senses
After reading we discussed in what ways the kids in the story learned about the world. That led to very briefly telling the five senses: touch, taste, smell, hear, and see. Today we will “Discover Delicious” as we focus on the sense of taste.
SING: I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas
Everyone loves tasting food, but first, let’s sing about it! Immediately, an old-time favorite from my own childhood came to mind: “I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas!” Each verse brings a simple change in pronunciation that everyone enjoys.
PLAY and WRITE: Discovering Delicious
I chose several different ingredients that I had on hand and put each in a separate bowl. The ingredients all looked similar. I used salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, powdered milk, and flour.
The kids used cotton swabs dipped in water to taste each one. (The water helps the powders stick to the swab.) Use a different swab for each taste to prevent germs from spreading.
The Discovering Delicious printable is included in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST. Click link to have it sent to your inbox.
For the youngest (age 4), it was a comparing activity as he ranked the ingredients from “Most Delicious” to “Least Delicious.”
To incorporate writing, label each ingredient with a letter. Use the Discovering Delicious Printable (included in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST) to have the kids record how they like the different ingredients, and then write the labels in order from Most Delicious to Least Delicious.
The older kids enjoyed making a tongue map and figuring out if some parts of the tongue tasted various foods differently. (Note that while different parts of the tongue are not entirely responsible for different tastes, slight differences can be detected.)
As they tasted we also talked about which ingredients were sweet, sour, salty, bitter, etc. We finished by washing down those less delicious tastes with a small sour then sweet treat…Sour Patch Kids! Yummers!
Talk: Trying New Foods
After we finished tasting the different ingredients, we gathered back in our circle. We talked about how you couldn’t tell by looking at the ingredients whether or not they tasted good. For that same reason, it is really important to try new foods. You might end up liking them!
However, are there some things we should not try? We don’t eat foods from strangers or things that are bad for our bodies. We talked briefly about how smoking and other drugs are bad for us, and if someone offers for us to try those we “Just say, ‘No!'”
Read: Books about Eating Food
A great book here for a preschool crowd is Green Eggs and Ham
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In this classic book, the main character is absolutely positive he does not like green eggs and ham. But after being bugged and bothered by Sam I Am, he decides to give them a try after all.
Since we do read Green Eggs and Ham a lot at our house, I chose The Berenstain Bears & Too Much Junk Food
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I love the way the Berenstain’s approach life and solve all of its problems. Mama Bear is the original Supernanny! In Too Much Junk Food the bears learn about eating healthy and exercising.
If you’re not familiar with the Berenstain Bears, check them out for sure. They offer simple, common sense solutions for every occasion through stories kids enjoy
Talk: Healthy Food Choices
After reading, we reviewed a few of the concepts discussed in the book. Our bodies need many kinds of nutrients in order to function properly. These nutrients come from different kinds of food. Therefore, in order to be healthy, we need to eat a variety of foods in moderation, with limited sweets. I showed them a picture of the US Government’s MyPlate and mentioned that it’s a good idea to try to have half of our food be fruits and vegetables.
Related: If you want support raising healthy eaters, we have a whole Masterclass on this topic inside our Mom Spot Membership, where we’re doing the work of parenting life on purpose, together.
PLAY: Food Sort
Using plastic play food (you could also use real food or pictures of food) we sorted foods into the different food groups. You could also make it more simple by sorting into “Healthy” and “Not Healthy.”
For any kind of food sorting, there are not always right and wrong answers. The important thing is to get kids thinking about what is in the foods we eat and what those different foods do for our bodies.
SING: “Aiken Drum”
“Aiken Drum” is a fun song about a man living in the moon whose body parts are all made of different foods. It’s a fun idea to let kids choose what foods those are. (I love that in one video I watched the singers went with one child’s suggestion that the pants are made of Dino Nuggets! 😉
WRITE: Letter D is for Delicious Collage
Our last activity was making a collage using the D is for Delicious! Collage Printable, which is included in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST.
First, we traced the D’s. The kids found a hidden one in the shape of the mouth. 😉
Next we used the grocery advertisements I had saved from the mail the previous week. The kids cut out pictures of foods that looked delicious to them and pasted the pictures on their mouth collage. I asked questions like, “What kind of dairy would you choose?” Mostly, they did whatever they wanted with the collage though.
A candid conversation also came up about how much different foods cost and what was a good deal. It’s always fun to hear a kid’s perspective on money. 😉
EAT: Foods that Start with the Letter D
In a rare turn of events, we didn’t eat a snack today, unless you count flour and baking soda as a snack! Learning about the sense of taste and didn’t have a real snack! Ironic right?
However, I wanted to give you some options. There are not too many healthy, whole foods that start with the letter D. Dill pickles, dried fruit, and dates are my top picks. Dates could be a new food for some Littles to try, which goes along well with what we talked about today. Other ideas are dinosaur shaped nuggets, donuts, deli meet, Deviled eggs, Doritos, drumsticks, or dairy foods. You could also classify anything as “delicious,” and call it a day!
SING: Goodbye Song
As usual, we finished by quickly reviewing our letter of the day, what letter D looks like and sounds like. Then we sang our goodbye song, and see you next week!
Hopefully we’ll see YOU next week too! We will explore hearing with E is for Ears! Be sure to follow by email to receive a note to your inbox when new posts are published.
Leave a comment to let me know what activities your Littles are enjoying, what types of posts you’d like to see, or any other questions or thoughts you have. I love hearing from you, and thanks for visiting! Happy Preschooling!
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I love making the real-life connections in these preschool settings and tying together all kinds of truth. I'm glad you appreciate that. I know those kinds of discussions are how I learned a lot growing up too.
I loved your collage idea, choosing your own aikendrum (one of our own favorites) words and the all white taste test. I like to learn from you how you incorporate many varied discussions far beyond the letter d and the senses (I.e. drugs, stranger awareness, nutrition, cost and spending). That is so often where the real learning takes place… Through the back door. Thank you for modeling that.