Tag Archives: picture books about the letter D

D-Lightful: A Storytime About the Letter D

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Early Literacy Tip: Take advantage of any opportunities to write your child’s name–on drawings or crafts they make or on nametags (I’ve started providing blank labels for nametags at storytime each week). Say each letter aloud as you write their name, and point out other words you come across together that start with the same letter.

I have been continuing my storytime journey through the alphabet in both Outdoor Musical Storytime and Family Storytime (Note: This is my second time doing this series of themes. You can find my previous letter-themed storytime posts at the bottom of my Storytime Themes page).

As usual, I started both storytimes by writing a capital and lowercase letter D on my whiteboard and asking the kids what sound the letter makes. Thankfully, D is an easy letter that really only makes one sound. Then I asked the kids if they could think of any words that started with the letter D. They suggested: dog, Dad, and daisy. I also pulled some items out of paper bag: a dinosaur, a rubber duck, and a dime (in my Family Storytime, which has a smaller group, I let the kids take turns pulling the items out of the bag).

Here’s the rest of what we did (this is a combination of the books and songs I used for both Family Storytime and Outdoor Musical Storytime):

Books:

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion; pictures by Margaret Bloy Graham

One of my favorite books from childhood, and clearly a favorite of many of my storytime caregivers. When Harry buries the scrubbing brush for his bath and goes off on a messy adventure, he turns from a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots. He looks so different that his family no longer recognizes him, until he begs for them to give him a bath. A slightly longer story than I usually read, but it was perfect for my Family Storytime crowd.

Dozens of Doughnuts by Brianne Farley

I love the illustrations in this book, especially the delicious looking doughnuts on the inside cover. LouAnn the bear is preparing to hibernate by making herself some doughnuts. But her friends keep showing up at the door asking to try some. In the end, there are no doughnuts left for LouAnn, who is extremely hungry and upset, until her friends come back to make more. The kids loved joining in on the repeated “Ding Dong’s” and growling like LouAnn when she loses her temper. This book is reminiscent of The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins (which would also fit the theme), but with doughnuts instead of cookies.

The Digger and the Dark by Joseph Kuefler

A cute story in The Digger series, which features the big trucks settling down to sleep, but being interrupted a group of playful, hungry raccoons. The raccoons keep the trucks awake every night until they finally discover the playground the machines have been building, and decide to play on that instead. The kids laughed every time I read the “Squeak Squeak” line that the raccoons say.

Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein

This is a delightfully silly, and somewhat violent story that always gets giggles. A baby dinosaur named Dinah hatches out of her egg and sees two small creatures kissing. She decides to try kissing too, but only succeeds in stomping, chomping, whomping, and even eating other creatures. Then she finds another baby dinosaur, and the two have fun stomping, chomping, and whomping with each other. The kids love the different sounds.

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds

I read this one for Family Storytime. It’s the classic story of a girl who is frustrated with her art abilities, until her teacher makes her sign a picture of a dot she drew and hangs it in the classroom. This leads her to make lots of different type of dots, which in turn inspires others. A beautiful book for older kids.

Songs:

B-I-N-G-O

I sang this to go along with Harry the Dirty Dog. This is an old standby, but here’s a video from Super Simple Songs, just in case you’re not familiar with it. Traditionally, you leave out a letter each time you sing it, and clap instead. Sometimes I have the kids bark the missing letters instead of clapping.

[C] There was a farmer [F] had a [C] dog,
And Bingo [G] was his [C] name-o.
[C] B-I- [F] N-G-O
[G] B-I- [C] N-G-O
[Am] B-I- [F] N-G-O
And [G] Bingo was his [C] name-o.

There was a farmer had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
(Clap!)-I-N-G-O!… etc.

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner

We sang this song to go along with Dinosaur Kisses. It’s always a big hit with all ages, and a good movement song to help get the kids refocused.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food on the [Dm] ground.
[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food, and [Dm] then we march [A] around.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest at the end of the [Dm] day.
[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest, and [Dm] then you’ll hear us [A] say…

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[A] And then we RO-AR-OAR!
[A] Because [Dm] we [C] are the [Dm]dino-[D]saurs!

Six Little Ducks

We have two different Monkee Mitt sets for the Five Little Ducks, so for Outdoor Musical Storytime, I put six of the ducks on the parachute and we waved the chute up and down in time to the song.

[C] Six little ducks that I once [G7] knew,
Big ones, little ones, [C] fair ones too.But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus:
[G7] “Quack! Quack! Quack! [C] Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

[C] Down to the river they would [G7] go,
Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble, [C] to and fro.
But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus

[C] Home from the river they would [G7] come,
[C] Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble, ho hum hum.
But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus

Do As I’m Doing

I learned this song years ago when I was volunteering to lead music classes at my kids’ school (the school had a curriculum written by an Orff music instructor, who recommended this as an opening song). We did it as an instrument play-along at the end, and I demonstrated different ways to play the egg shakers (tapping them on the ground, waving them back and forth, holding them up high, etc.) each time we sang it. You can also do it with different motions (clapping, jumping, stomping, or even walking, skipping, or galloping in a line through the room).

[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, follow [G7] me.
[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, [G7] follow [C] me.
[C] Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me.
[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.
Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me,
[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.

Stay & Play: Dot Markers & Snap Dinos

For the Stay & Play, I just put out white paper and dot markers, which the kids always love. They are great because you can draw with them like a big marker or makes wtih dot them (which the kids enjoy doing with great enthusiasm–and noise!).

I also put out our set of Snap Dinos for the kids to play with. These are mix-and-match wooden pieces of different dinosaur parts (heads, bodies, tails, legs, etc.) that can be snapped together to create new and colorful dinosaurs (you can see part of one of the pieces in the photo above).

Do you have any favorite picture books, songs, or activities featuring the letter D? Please share them in the comments below.

D is for Duck: A Storytime for the Letter D

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I’m enjoying my storytime journey through the alphabet. This week we did the letter D in both Outdoor Musical Storytime and Family Storytime. I started by showing the kids a drum (a djembe), a dog puppet, and for fun, a didgeridoo (an instrument that I once received as a birthday gift, which I recently learned is actually called a mago by the Australian Aboriginal peoples who play it). We talked about the letter D and the sound it makes. I drew the letter on my little whiteboard, and then we drew it together in the air.

Here’s a combination of the books and songs I used for both storytimes:

Books:

Truck Full of Ducks by Ross Barach

Funny book about a service run by a dog who provides a “truck full of ducks” on demand. But when one of his ducks eats the paper with the customer’s address, he ends up asking everyone he meets if they need a truck full of ducks. He meets animals who have requested an ice cream truck, a pirate seeking a cracker truck for his parrot, an alien who requested a tow truck, and even someone who called for a duck removal service, before he makes his way into the deep dark woods to his actual customer: a fox who wants ducks for his bath. The kids especially loved the picture of all the ducks stopping at a rest stop, with all of their little duck feet showing underneath the restroom doors.

Dalmatian in a Digger by Rebecca Elliott

Cute book with lots of sound effects for the kids to join in on, like “Dugger Dugger Digger,” and featuring a variety of animals driving construction vehicles: a camel in a crane, a duck in a dump truck. It was a big hit with the kids who love trucks and big machines.

Down by the Station by Will Hillenbrand

Adorable adaptation of the traditional song, featuring lots of baby animals all rising the train to the children’s zoo. Each verse adds a new animal sound.

Dinosaur Stomp by Paul Stickland

This book seems to be out of print, unfortunately, which is sad, because it was a big hit with my family storytime kids. It’s a simple, rhyming pop-up, featuring large colorful dinosaurs. We have it on a small shelf of non-circulating books for storytime. One preschooler was so taken with it that she spend twenty minutes flipping through it after storytime, and cried when she had to leave.

Is There a Dog in This Book? by Viviane Schwarz

A fun sequel to There Are Cats in This Book, where the three colorful cats are frightened by the arrival of cute, purple dog, but soon discover that it is scared too. We had a small enough group for Family Storytime that I was able to let each kid take a turn opening one of the books many flaps, and petting the dog.

Songs:

When Ducks Get Up in the Morning

This is an old-standby of mine. The kids always enjoy suggesting animals for each verse. We sang about pigs, cats, dinosaurs, turtles, and whales.

[C] When ducks get up in the morning,
[G7] They always say, “Good [C] day!”
[C] When ducks get up in the morning,
[G7] They always say, “Good [C] day!”
[C] They say, “Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] That is what they [C] say.
[C] They say, “Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] That is what they [C] say.

Six Little Ducks

Another favorite duck song.

[C] Six little ducks that I once [G7] knew,
Fat ones, skinny ones, [C] fair ones too.But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus:
[G7] “Quack! Quack! Quack! [C] Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

[C] Down to the river they would [G7] go,
Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble, [C] to and fro.
But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus

[C] Home from the river they would [G7] come,
[C] Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble, ho hum hum.
But the one little duck with the [G7] feather on his back.
He led the others with his [C] “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

Chorus

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner

Most of the families were familiar with this song, which always gets the kids up and stomping. Laurie Berkner’s original video is below.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food on the [Dm] ground.
[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food, and [Dm] then we march [A] around.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest at the end of the [Dm] day.
[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest, and [Dm] then you’ll hear us [A] say…

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[A] And then we RO-AR-OAR!
[A] Because [Dm] we [C] are the [Dm]dino-[D]saurs!

Do As I’m Doing

I gave out play scarves before we sang this one, and demonstrated different motions each time we sang it: twirling the scarves, throwing them in the air, playing peek-a-boo, etc.

[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, follow [G7] me.

[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, [G7] follow [C] me.

[C] Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me.

[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.

Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me,

[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.

Dee Dee Dee by Jeff Moss

An old, but very catchy song from Sesame Street. We sang it as our instrument play-along at the end.

[Bb] Dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, [C7] doggy.
Dee-dee, dangerous [F] dragon.
Dee-dee, dee-dee, [Bb] donkey, duckie,
[F] Dinosaur!
Oh, [Bb] dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, dee-dee, [C7] dinner.
Dee-dee, dee-dee, [F] De-licious.
Dee-dee, dee-dee, dee, [Bb] don’t drop dishes
[C7] Down on the floor!
Oh, [Cm7] do a dance.
Dig some dirt.
Dunk a [Bb] doughnut for dessert.
Draw a [C7] daisy that’s dee-de-lightful to [F] see
When “D” is handy, it’s fine and dandy.
Dee, dee-dee, dee
[Bb] “D” is such a very nice [C7] letter.
Each day I like it [F] better,
That lovely letter called [Bb] “D!”
Having fun!
But [F] now I’m dee, dee, dee, [Bb] done!

Stay & Play: Complete the Drawing

This was a really simple activity, but I justified it because the word drawing also starts with the letter D. I printed out several of these Finish the Drawing pages from Finish the Picture Drawing Prompt Worksheets for Kids – Free Printable (thesavvysparrow.com). The kids could choose from the astronaut picture shown above, a pair of glasses that they could add a face to, a scene outside a window, or a picture of what a group of people are looking at. Then I just put out markers for them to draw whatever they liked. Some of them got really caught up in creating their drawings.

What are your favorite books or songs featuring the letter D? Please share them in the comments below.