Shape Playdough Mats
These free printable shape playdough mats are a fun and interactive way for children to learn about shapes. Simply download, print, and laminate for hours of educational playtime!
Playdough shape mats make creative time with playdough extra fun! This free printable teaches kids how to form basic shapes, giving them an exciting way to learn new things. It’s no secret that play doh is a kid’s best friend. There are just so many things that you can do with playdough, so there’s endless imaginative plays and creative excitement to be had! I have a few amazing playdough recipes too. During the fall, we always make pumpkin playdough and around Christmas, my peppermint playdough is must have. Oh, and my Christmas playdough mats too!
But regular ol’ homemade playdough is always perfect too. I actually prefer to make our own playdough because it’s more affordable, adds another fun activity into playtime too. Shape play dough mats are a fantastic, hands-on approach to learning. These free printables will be a great addition to early childhood learning! And who doesn’t love free playdough mats?! So many reasons to love this activity.
Why You’ll Love these Shape Playdough Mats
- Creating things with playdough is a fantastic way to improve fine motor strength. For pre-k students and kindergarteners, these skills are crucial to develop early on!
- Let’s be honest, younger students typically have shorter attention spans. So if you’re involved in any kind of early childhood education, play mats like these are a fantastic way to keep kids engaged while learning.
- Once you laminate these playdough shape mats, they are reusable! So that makes this an extra extra affordable activity, especially since this is a total freebie resource.
Supplies Needed
- Printer – I recommend printing these pdf files in color so that they’re more eye catching and kid friendly. However, black and white will also totally work!
- Copy paper – You can print these free shape printables for playdough on regular white copy paper. If you’d like to increase their durability, then print them on some white cardstock instead. They’ll be a bit more sturdy and would likely hold up better under heavy use.
- Laminator – This is the way to make these play mats reusable. If you do not have a laminator at your disposal, then you can use plastic page protectors in their place! Just keep in mind that they likely wouldn’t last as long, especially if you plan to use them often.
What’s Included
Free resources are my favorite thing to provide to parents and busy educators! You guys have enough on your plate, so any way I can provide a time-saving and money-saving bundle, I’m going to do it. This pdf download is one of those ways! It includes 12 different pages, each with an outline of a shape that your kiddo will create in playdough. The shapes included are:
- circle
- crest
- half circle
- hexagon
- octagon
- oval
- diamond
- heart
- rectangle
- square
- star
- triangle
How to make shapes with play dough
Grab a ball of play dough and then roll it out into a long strand — kind of like a snake! Then take the rope of playdough and form it into the shapes that are on each of the laminated shapes worksheets. This is a great time to work on saying the shape names out loud as well!
What are the benefits of playdough exploration?
Playing with playdough develops those fine motor muscles and also encourages creative and imaginative play. It’s also fantastic sensory play, especially when your playdough is scented (like my gingerbread playdough!). Creative learning with playdough is often used for math centers and writing centers too since it’s great for literacy and numeracy comprehension.
Pro Tips for the Most Fun!
- Use a thicker laminating sheet to make the playdough mat printables super sturdy. A 4mm thickness should hold up underneath playdough pretty well!
- Add sticky dots or tape underneath each mat to keep them from sliding around when playing. You can even put velcro strips on the back and another on the table to easily attach and remove them whenever needed.
- Have kiddos that love to eat what they play with? Make this activity extra safe by whipping up a batch of edible playdough!
These free printable shape playdough mats are just the cutest and most fun way to learn! Print out however many you need and make a super fun lessons out of it.
More Creative Learning Ideas!
- You can make a great learning center out of many of my free printable activities. These Fall Rhyming Words Activities are great for prek – 1st learning!
- Get your prek – k kiddos prepared over the summer time with this Preschool Summer Math Practice packet. It’s great for homeschool kiddos too!
- Fill your morning tubs and substitute tubs with easy worksheets like Winter Color by Number. The number and color recognition kids learn with these activities is great!
- Make a writing center with activities like these Trace, Write and Color States Worksheets. They’re the perfect addition to history and geography lessons.
