So this week I’m sharing a brand new printable set of preschool mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats!

These are super fun for little ones who are working on fine motor skills, shape recognition, and more!

Plus, they’re a perfect activity for preschoolers who are working on a geology unit along with their older siblings.

Read on to see how to get yours for free!

And don’t forget to stop by and check out some of our other preschool printables, including our Apple Tree Counting Mat and our Beach Playdough Number Mats!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats

To use these mountain playdough shape mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Playdough
• Laminator
• Do A Dot Markers (optional)

Once you laminate these mats, you can use them again and again, so here are a few different ways to use them with your preschoolers.

Give your child a Do A Dot marker and challenge him or her to fill in each shape with a different color. Or each dot with a different color.

You can even ask your child to make a color pattern (one green circle, one red circle, one blue circle, then repeat it).

Hand out circular stickers and let your child stick them into the circles. This is particularly great for toddlers or for times when you want to avoid a potential mess.

Use playdough to fill in the circles. Have your child roll small bits of dough into circles and place them in each circle to form each shape. This is excellent for fine motor practice.

Give your child dry erase crayons and bring the mats along when you’re going to a place you’ll have to wait.

Good choices include the doctor’s office, the drive-through, or a long car ride. Toss a basic washcloth into the car and use it to wipe off the mats for reuse.

Don’t miss these other preschool resources!

Plus, get more ideas for working with preschoolers on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your copy of our free Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Do A Dot Shape Mats, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get these and lots of other exclusive learning printables when you subscribe!

This post is part of the Mountains Unit Study roundup! Stop by to read even more learning ideas about mountains from my fellow bloggers!

Adventurous Mountain Books your Tween will Love from Crafty Mama in ME

Children’s Picture Books About Camping from The Jenny Evolution

Mountain Sequencing Puzzle from Schooling a Monkey

Making a Mountain Out of A Mole Hill from Tales Of Education At Home

My Side of the Mountain Survival Lessons from FrogMom

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Of course, some of that is because I like to play with playdough and I basically insisted they did too. I make no apologies.

Working with playdough is such a soothing activity for kids (and adults) and it’s good gross motor and fine motor skill practice too.

So, since fall is just around the corner, why not try this fun apple pie playdough recipe with your kids for some fall sensory fun!

This is such a fun DIY playdough recipe to make with the kids. It smells amazing and it’s a fun way to get them ready for fall baking!

It would also be a fantastic sensory activity to try after reading some of your child’s favorite fall books for kids!

Read on to get the full printable playdough recipe while you’re here.

Want more apple fun for early learners? Don’t miss our Apple Alike! Same or Different Worksheets!

Fall Apple Pie Playdough

To make this fall apple pie playdough recipe, you’ll need the following:

• Flour
• Coconut oil
• Salt
• Cream of tartar
• Food coloring
• Apple scented oil
• Green apple scented oil
• Cinnamon scented oil

You’ll be following the same basic DIY playdough recipe to make each flavor.

You’ll just need to adjust the scents and colors to make each ingredient of the “pie”.

As a note, this apple pie playdough recipe is NOT edible. Please don’t allow small children to eat it. It smells good, but it’s just for play.

Start by mixing the flour, salt, and cream of tartar together.

Then add the coconut oil, food coloring, apple scented oil, and some warm water.

Cook the mixture over low heat while stirring continuously.

You’ll know it’s done when it starts to look “doughy”. Keep stirring until the dough no longer looks wet.

Then remove it from the pan and knead it with your hand until it forms a ball.

To make the green apple playdough, swap out the red food coloring for green food coloring.

And use green apple scented oil instead of regular apple.

When you’re ready to make the “crust”, just use brown food coloring and cinnamon scented oil.

Follow the same steps to cook the playdough on the stove.

Then knead it into a ball and you’re done!

The kids will love using playdough tools to mold each batch into a pie!

They can even use child-safe scissors to cut the lattice strips for the top of the “apple pie crust”!

Scroll down for the full fall apple pie playdough recipe!

Don’t miss these other fun ways to make playdough at home!

See more ways to learn with sensory fun on my Sensory Play Pinterest board!

 

Apple Pie Playdough Recipe

Get the full apple pie playdough recipe below!

If you plan to make it with your kids, let me know how they like it!

Print

Apple Pie Playdough Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup salt
• 4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 cups warm water
• red food coloring
• green food coloring
• brown food coloring
• apple scented oil
• green apple scented oil
• cinnamon scented oil

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cream of tartar.
• Add the coconut oil and mix well.
• Pour the mixture into a saucepan and add the warm water.
• Add a few drops of red food coloring to make the apple playdough. Add green food coloring if you are making the green apple playdough. Add brown food coloring if you are making the cinnamon playdough.
• Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture is no longer wet and looks doughy.
• Remove the dough from the saucepan. Knead it with your hands until smooth.

Notes

Store the playdough in an airtight container for up to three days.

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Have you ever tried making your own playdough? We’ve done it several times and it’s always a big hit with our kids.

But, if you really want to take it to the next level, edible playdough is where it’s at. Remember always thinking that playdough looked good and then being disappointed when you tried to taste it (whenever your mom wasn’t looking, that is)? Edible playdough actually does taste amazing.

So for a fun astronomy sensory play activity, I thought my kids would love some DIY Solar System Edible Playdough! This is so simple and fun to make! And it’s a sweet treat for the kids to enjoy too. (Just don’t let them eat too much or they’ll be bouncing off the ceiling.) Read on to get the recipe for yourself!

Want more fun sensory play? Don’t miss our simple DIY flubber kids can make!

Solar System Edible Playdough

Basically, you’re going to make colored sugar frosting. Which is why the kids shouldn’t eat too much, you know?

You can use any color of frosting you like, but the Funfetti brand has some awesome brightly colored versions that will give you a lovely color for each planet.

To make Earth and moon playdough, we went with blue frosting (for Earth) and yellow frosting (for the moon).

Mix the two together to get the right consistency. You want it squishy, but still kind of firm.

Turn your mixture onto a wooden surface.

Let the kids mix it up with their little fingers!

This is great gross motor skill practice, by the way.

All you need now are two empty jars with lids (baby food jars are perfect), colored ribbon, and some cute solar system stickers!

Fill each jar with one color of the playdough.

And add the lids!

These particular stickers came from a brick-and-mortar store, but if you want to get something solar system-themed online, try these solar system planet stickers. I actually think those are even better, because you can choose from specific planets with the planet names.

And with the different frosting colors, you could make a batch for every planet in the solar system!

These would make awesome party favors, but your kids will also love making up their own solar system edible playdough to play with (and taste!).

Click over to page 2 for the full recipe!

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If you’re teaching toddlers or preschoolers this year, you’ll love using these mats to help them work on fine motor skills and letter/number recognition!

Plus, it’s always fun to play with playdough, even for adults!

By the way, don’t miss our other preschool playdough mats, including our apple tree counting mat – another easy fall project for PreK!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Alphabet & Number Fall Playdough Mats

To use these preschool fall playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Laminator
• Playdough

This pack includes:

• 26 letter mats showing both uppercase and lowercase letters
• 10 number mats showing the numbers 0-9

To use these mats, show the kids how to roll their playdough into rope-like shapes.

Once they form the playdough ropes, they can connect them together to trace the shapes of the letters and numbers on the mats.

We decided to use fall-themed colored playdough as well.

There are mats for each letter – from A all the way to Z! So if you’re using letter of the week with your preschoolers, you can choose one letter per week and work on practicing forming the letters as you go.

Plus, there are printable fall playdough mats for the numbers 0-9 as well!

Be sure to laminate them before you use them with any playdough, especially if you want to reuse them at another time.

Scroll down to get your Alphabet and Number Fall Playdough Mats!

Toddler Books about Fall:

Make this activity into an easy fall pre-k unit with these fun toddler books about fall!

1. Fall Is Here by Frankie Jones

2. Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka

3. I Love Fall! by Allison Inches

4. Fall by Roger Priddy

Homemade Playdough Recipes:

Need some ideas for making your own playdough for use with these mats? Check out these simple recipes!

1. DIY Edible Playdough – Look! We’re Learning!

2. No Cook Playdough – The Imagination Tree

3. Kool-Aid Playdough – Look! We’re Learning!

4. Cotton Candy Playdough – Mama Miss

Don’t miss these other fall activity posts!

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We don’t see rainbows that often in our area, but when we do, they are gorgeous. If I happen to see one while driving, I’ve been known to shout “Look, kids! A rainbow!”

They’re just as fascinating to me now as they were when I was a kid.

For our newest preschool playdough mats, I wanted to share one with a fun spring theme. And that’s why today we have our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats!

Guess what? They’re FREE! Read on to see how to get yours!

To round out your spring unit, check out these adorable spring crafts for kids to make. And for more rainbow fun, don’t miss our Rainbow Number Word Matching Puzzles!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Rainbow Playdough Mats

To use these rainbow playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Laminator
• Playdough

You can use these without laminating them, but you probably won’t be able to reuse them a second time if you do.

If you’re waffling on buying a laminator, they’re totally worth it. 

This product includes one color rainbow mat and one black and white mat, so it’s a great way to talk about colors with preschoolers as well!

Since these rainbow mats use several colors, kids can break out many colors of playdough to use together. That’s always fun. 

Work on one color row at a time and make sure that kids can recognize and name each one before moving on.

This is also a good fine motor activity, because preschoolers can use their hands to form the playdough into ropes and then mold them to fit the mat pattern.

Once kids follow the color playdough mat pattern, they can recreate it on the black and white mat.

Or just come up with their own color scheme instead!

Scroll down to get your free Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats!

Don’t miss these other preschool playdough mats while you’re here!

And pick up our Spring Sight Word Flashcards to help get preschoolers reading!

And see more ways to make learning fun for early grades on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

To get your free copy of our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats, sign up for our email newsletter!

You’ll get these printables, and lots more, in our exclusive Subscriber Library! Just use the widget below to enroll.

NOTE: If you don’t see your welcome email, check your spam folder.

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Piglet, our youngest, is starting PreK this year. She is so excited about it.

Of course, she also thinks that she will begin kindergarten immediately after the first day of preschool.

Since she’s working on PreK concepts, I’ll be sharing a lot more preschool resources this year, including preschool playdough mats!

Here in the U.S., we’re all gearing up for fall, so here’s a fun Playdough Apple Tree Counting Mat you can use with your toddler or preschooler too!

Read on to see how to grab this for your students.

And for more apple fun, don’t miss our Apple Alike! Same or Different Worksheets or our Apple Preschool Counting Puzzles!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Apple Tree Counting Mat

Here are the supplies we used for our mats: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Scotch Thermal Laminator
• Play-Doh – 24 Pack of Colors

That’s it! You definitely want to laminate these first so that they can be reused.

Since the apples are grouped on the trees in sets of four, this was a simple way to work on skip counting.

Just add four apples to each tree and count them.

Use a different color to work on counting and sorting. (How many green apples are there? How many red apples are there?)

Then a little reinforcement. If there are four green apples on this tree and four green apples on this tree, how many green apples are there altogether? Oh, so four plus four is how much?

Next thing you know, your preschooler will be saying that 4 x 2 = 8.

Scroll down to get your copy of our Playdough Apple Tree Counting Mat!

Check out these other fall learning ideas for preschoolers!

And don’t miss our list of awesome fall books for kids to share this year!

Get more ideas for fall fun with kids from my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

Grab your copy of our Printable Apple Tree Counting Mat for free when you sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll receive access to this printable, plus loads of other learning resources, in our exclusive Subscriber Library!

This post is part of the Free Unit Studies roundup! Stop by to see more fun posts about Apples and Pumpkins from my fellow bloggers!

Corn Kernel Fall Tree Craft from Play Dough & Popsicles

Kids in the Kitchen: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Crafty Mama in ME

Learning About Pumpkins {Free Printables Round Up} from Faith and Good Works

Books about Pumpkins for Kids from CraftCreateCalm

Pumpkin Recipes for Kids from FrogMom

Harvest Theme Word Search from Tales of Education at Home

Board Books About Apples and Pumpkins for Toddlers from The Jenny Evolution

Pumpkin Science Activities from iGameMom

Apple Read and Play from My Storytime Corner

Pumpkin Preschool Printables from Living life and learning

Pumpkin Patch Alphabet Match from Schooling a Monkey

Apple Sight Word Game from Books and Giggles

Challenge Math – Apple Theme from Planet Smarty Pants

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