Thousands of years ago, the letter D was called a dalet, which means door. And the uppercase letter D really looks like one! The straight line is the hinged side, and the curve is the rest.
This guide is designed to help you open the door for your child into a world rich with words. Focusing on the letter D, we’ll provide facts about this fourth letter of the alphabet, offer lists of grade-level words that start with the letter D, and give you fun letter-related activities.
Building vocabulary is a critical step in your child’s literacy journey. Once they can read words, then sentences, and then stories, they’ll be able to open their own doors to wherever they want to go!
Key Takeaways
- As you begin teaching your child about the letter D, make sure you give them lots of exposure to it. Read books together, point out objects that start with D, and encourage your child to find words on their own.
- To ignite your child’s creativity and curiosity, try introducing them to alphabet games and activities as they learn the letter D.
Table of Contents
- Fun Facts About the Letter D
- Beginning Vocabulary: Kindergarten and 1st Grade D Words
- Growing Vocabulary: 2nd and 3rd Grade D Words
Fun Facts About the Letter D
Learning the alphabet is a necessary part of learning to read. In fact, studies have shown that spending time mastering the letters of the alphabet is a huge predictor of reading success down the road. All 26 letters are critical components of the process, and the letter D is no exception!
Most often, the letter D makes one sound: /d/ or duh. (Occasionally, it is silent, like in the words handkerchief and Wednesday.) It’s a common letter (ranked 10th most frequently used!), so you can be sure your child will run into it early in their letter-learning education.
Here are some more fun facts that might get your child excited to learn about the letter D:
- In Roman numerals, D stands for 500.
- In mathematics, D is the abbreviation for diameter.
- Vitamin D builds strong bones and keeps them healthy. It is sometimes called the “sunshine vitamin” because our bodies produce it when we’re exposed to sunlight.
- The word dord is called a ghost word, which means it was accidentally included in a dictionary in 1934. But it wasn’t a real word!
Beginning Vocabulary: Kindergarten and 1st Grade D Words
If your child is in kindergarten or 1st grade, try to choose simple words that they might already know from the world around them.
Here are some examples of kindergarten words that start with the letter D:
- dress
- dart
- dam
- dirt
- dew
- data
- deed
- donut
- dark
- dime
Here are some examples of 1st grade words that start with the letter D:
- dance
- dye
- deny
- duty
- dragon
- dash
- dawn
- dinosaur
- drama
- diary
Activities
If reading picture books is a part of your child’s daily routine, try giving extra attention to the specific letter they’re learning. For example, while you’re teaching them the letter D, you might choose a book about a dog or a dragon.
Play Scrambled Words. Using magnetic letters, choose a simple word (like dog) and find the D, O, and G. Scramble the letters and challenge your child to rearrange the letters to make a real word.
If you don’t have magnetic letters, you can also cut up paper into small squares and write one letter on each.
Paint with sponges. Cut sponges into letter shapes. Your child can paint one side of them (with a brush or by placing them in a shallow bowl of paint) and use them as stamps.
If you want to avoid a mess, you can forget about the paint altogether and turn the activity into water play. Fill a bin or give them to your child to play with in the bath!
Go outside with Alphabet Charades. Write down the words your child has been learning to read. Study the shapes of the letters together. Then ask your child to pick one of the words and make the shapes of the letters with their body.
For instance, let’s say your child picks the word dog. First, they would try to form the letter D with their body, then O, and then G. In addition to practicing their letters, your child will work on body awareness with this fun activity!
Growing Vocabulary: 2nd and 3rd Grade D Words
Once your child is in 2nd and 3rd grade, you can introduce more complex vocabulary words. Try to choose words that are familiar to your child, such as from their favorite books or objects in your home.
Here are some examples of 2nd-grade words that start with the letter D:
- dainty
- doubt
- dearly
- defeat
- decay
- dusky
- defend
- desert
- dreamy
- drowsy
Here are some examples of 3rd-grade words that start with the letter D:
- dedicate
- dissolve
- drawback
- document
- dignity
- defender
- dazzling
- differ
- daring
- darling
Activities
Once you’ve identified those familiar objects that begin with the letter D, try labeling them with index cards. This will give your child another chance to get comfortable with these new words.
Make invisible words visible. This is a fun hands-on magic trick! Using a white crayon, write a word on a piece of white paper. Then give your child some watercolors and ask them to paint over the hidden word. Tada!
You can make a game out of this art project by suggesting to your child that they paint over the paper slowly, revealing one letter at a time. As they go, they can try to guess the word.
Go on an alphabet hunt. Write the letters your child is learning on sticky notes, one letter per note. (The quantity is up to you, but a good place to start is with three of each letter.) Hide the letters around your home.
Ask your child to hunt for them. Each time they find one, they should bring it back to you and say the letter name and the sound it makes. Once they’ve retrieved them, you can work together to create words with the notes.
Draw with D. Write a large letter D on two pieces of paper. Take one for yourself and give one to your child. Each of you then draws a picture, using the D as a central shape. Maybe the D becomes a cloud in the sky or the wing of a butterfly.
Add another creative layer to this activity by writing a story using your pictures.
Give your child these Letter D worksheets to try!
Keep Learning with Begin!
Finding ways to make learning the alphabet fun for your child (and you) is important as they develop their literacy skills. The more they enjoy it, the more information they’ll absorb. A strong vocabulary (including words that begin with D) will set up your child for success.
We’d love to help! We can continue the fun with our award-winning products, including Learn with Sesame Street and HOMER! Begin’s personalized, play-based approach is designed to keep your child excited about learning as they challenge themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the alphabetic principle?
The alphabetic principle is the idea that written letters represent spoken language. What we write mimics what we say. When your child learns that they can depend on the predictability of written language equaling verbal language, their reading can take off.
Systematically learning each letter of the alphabet gives your child the opportunity, over and over again, to practice making those vital connections.
When my child is learning a letter that has multiple pronunciations, should I teach all of them at once?
Every letter of the alphabet has its most common sound. For example, while the letter D is silent in some words, it typically makes a duh sound. So, this is its most common sound.
Introducing common sounds first makes it easier for your child to learn the alphabet. Those sounds are the most predictable. They’re the sounds your child is most likely to come across as they expand their vocabulary.
Once they’ve got those under their belt, they’ll be more confident and prepared to learn about the less common pronunciations.
What is alphabet matching?
Alphabet matching is an activity to help your child learn the connections between uppercase and lowercase letters. If your child can recognize both versions of the same letter, they’ll be better able to learn to both read and write.
Like all learning, the more fun it is for your child, the more apt they are to retain what you are teaching them. Some variations on teaching alphabet matching include:
Sort magnetic letters. Write a lowercase version of each letter in the alphabet on individual sticky notes and place them on a flat surface. Give your child a bowl filled with your magnetic alphabet letters and ask them to match the uppercase magnets to the lowercase notes.
Play a post office game. Write the names of your family members on envelopes with an uppercase first letter and lowercase for the rest. Then, on small squares of paper, write uppercase letters, one for each letter in the names.
Then ask your child to “write” letters to each family member by placing the correct uppercase letters into their corresponding envelopes. Then they can “deliver” them to everyone!
Play a memory game with a twist. Write each letter of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, on individual squares of paper. (So you’ll have 52 letters total.) Turn them all upside down on a flat surface and ask your child to try to match each uppercase letter with its lowercase counterpart.
