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

The post Preschool Playdough Mats: Mountain Playdough Shape Mats appeared first on Look! We're Learning!.

It’s time for us to share another one of our preschool playdough mats and this time we have cupcakes!

Cupcakes are just plain fun. Whenever I say the word “cupcake”, I just start to smile involuntarily. It’s science.

So I thought these cupcake playdough mats would be fun for little hands! They’re great for building fine motor skills, color recognition, and more. 

And they’re perfect for a cupcake unit! Because you can never learn too much about cupcakes, right?

Read on to see how to get your copy of these fun printable mats for some playdough time with the kids!

Ready for more fine motor skill fun?

Don’t miss our other preschool playdough mats, including Mountain Do-A-Dot Shape Mats and Fall Alphabet and Number Playdough Mats!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Cupcake Playdough Mats

To use these 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 (to reuse the mats for another time)
• Play dough

This product includes four different cupcake mats – two with faces and two without.

I thought the cupcake faces were adorable, but if your child prefers the ones that look more like food, no biggie!

These would make fantastic busy bag additions.

You can print them, laminate them, and add them to a busy bag with dry-erase crayons or dot markers and let your child color in the circles!

Personally, I love the use of playdough for fine motor skill building.

Kids can practice rolling the dough into small spheres and then placing them on the free spaces on each mat.

You can use different colors to practice color recognition or even work on counting by counting how many playdough balls you can add to each picture!

Scroll down to get your set of printable cupcake playdough mats!

Don’t miss our other preschool playdough mats!

To get your set of these printable cupcake playdough mats, use the image or the link below to have it sent to your email inbox!

You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – this Sunday!

>>> Printable Cupcake Playdough Mats <<<

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]]> https://www.lookwerelearning.com/farm-do-a-dot-shape-mats/ https://www.lookwerelearning.com/farm-do-a-dot-shape-mats/#comments Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:00:00 +0000 https://www.lookwerelearning.com/?p=7594 I love teaching shapes to early learners. It’s just plain fun. There are shapes all around us! So, once you introduce basic shapes to your preschoolers, expect them to point them out everywhere they look. *Pointing to a window* – “Look, Mommy! A square!” *Pointing to a plate* – “Look, Mommy! A circle!” *Me pointingKeep Reading...

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I love teaching shapes to early learners. It’s just plain fun.

There are shapes all around us! So, once you introduce basic shapes to your preschoolers, expect them to point them out everywhere they look.

*Pointing to a window* – “Look, Mommy! A square!”

*Pointing to a plate* – “Look, Mommy! A circle!”

*Me pointing to the toddler bed in which mine should take a nap* – “Look! A rectangle! Don’t you want to get in it?”

(Doesn’t work, by the way.)

These farm shape playdough mats are great for building fine motor skills and shape recognition!

Plus, they’re a nice, quiet learning activity for kids to work with on their own.

Toddlers and preschoolers love to work with preschool playdough mats, such as our Apple Tree Playdough Mat and our Beach Number Playdough Mats.

And these shape playdough mats are tons of fun too! Kids can use dot markers or playdough to make shapes all by themselves.

Read on to see how to get yours! And don’t miss our list of farm books for kids to read!

Farm Fine Motor! Printable Farm Playdough Shape Mats

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

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Playdough
• Laminator
• Optional: Dot Markers

This product includes eight mats featuring several basic shapes:

• Triangle
• Circle
• Square
• Rectangle
• Diamond
• Oval
• Heart
• Pentagon

Plus, this resource includes detailed suggestions for how to use these shape mats with students and as an in-class lesson!

How to Use Dot Shape Mats with Students

These farm-themed shape mats are so versatile for use with preschoolers and kindergartners.

You can print them and let kids use dot markers to fill in the shapes. Or if you prefer, you can laminate them and let kids use them with playdough!

You could also try using stickers instead of markers or laminating them and using them with dry-erase crayons or fingerpaint.

There are tons of ways to help kids use these and work on fine motor skills!

If you don’t plan to laminate these, you can simply print them on cardstock. They’ll hold up much better than on regular paper.

Hint: These are great for busy bag work too.

Just print them two to a page to make miniature shape playdough mats you can place in a busy bag for on-the-go fun!

Get a look at these farm shape mats in action in the video below!

Scroll down to get your set of Farm Shape Playdough Mats!

Add more learning ideas to your farm unit with these activities!

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Summer break is coming up, and I’m in a “beachy” mood. So I decided to whip up some fun Beach 0-9 Number Playdough Mats!

Piglet is starting Tot school this fall and she can recite the ABCs and count to 10. But she doesn’t recognize the letters and numbers yet, which means it’s time to get to work!

I love using playdough to reinforce number recognition, because it’s great for improving fine motor skills, it provides good sensory input, and (most of all) it’s quiet.

She’ll sit there and play quietly with playdough mats for a good 30 minutes. Win!

If you love these, take a look at our Fall Alphabet and Number Literacy Mats too!

Beach Number Playdough Mats for Preschool

To use these beach number playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Laminator
• Playdough (or make your own with this edible playdough recipe)

Working with playdough is a great way for kids to build fine motor skills – the same skills they’ll need to write numbers and letters later on.

With these mats, kids can make playdough “snakes” by rolling the dough back and forth between both hands.

They, they can lay the dough out over the shape of each number.

You’ll want to laminate the mats before you get started or else they’ll only last for one session. Trust me.

Since each mat features only one number, you can use them along with a number of the day lesson.

This allows kids to focus on recognizing one number at a time.

How to Use Literacy Mats with Early Learners

Literacy mats are wonderful for early learners – from toddlers to kindergartners.

You can use them when reviewing letters or numbers. And you can use them when you’re covering a thematic unit (beaches, insects, transportation, etc.)

The key here is to keep the learning open-ended and relaxed.

As long as the students get to work with the playdough and practice forming letters and numbers, they’re doing great.

If they don’t remember each letter or number right away, they will over time.

Get a look at these number literacy mats in action below!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Beach 0-9 Number Playdough Mats!

Stop by to check out these other summer fun ideas for kids!

To get your copy of our Beach 0-9 Number Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to have them sent to your inbox!

You’ll also get our weekly newsletter – coming this weekend!

>>> Beach Number Playdough Mats <<<

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Preschoolers (and adults, for that matter) love playing with playdough! And, by the way, when you need something to occupy your kids quietly, playdough is a wonderful resource. It’s quiet, it’s easy to clean up, and it’s affordable.

On a personal note – I just want to know: Are my kids the only ones who mix up ALL the playdough colors? I really struggled to find some dough that looked decent for this post and it was tough! Out of the 20 cans of playdough in our house, I found one that was actually the color on the lid. One. Someone please tell me this is normal.

Even though kids like to use playdough to make all kinds of wacky colors, playdough can be much more than a time-filler for kids. It can be used to reinforce fine motor skill development, to encourage literacy, and to provide some much-needed sensory input.

So, I wanted to add a few more preschool playdough mats with a fun spring theme: ladybug playdough mats! These are awesome for toddlers and preschoolers who are learning about spring and how to recognize circles!

Read on to get yours free! And check out our Over the Rainbow Playdough Mats for more spring sensory fun!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Ladybug Playdough Mats

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

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

There are three mats in this pack: One with a red and white ladybug, one with a ladybug crawling up a colorful flower, and a third with a black and red ladybug.

The graphics on these mats were done by the lovely Red Pepper and they’re so cute! Plus, they all feature circles. So if you’re doing shape of the week or a shape unit, this is a fab circle recognition activity.

We formed rough circles out of dough and our preschooler squashed them with her hands to fit the circles on the mats.

We also made balls and filled in the mat with those as well. This made a super easy and quick sensory and shape activity for spring!

Scroll down to get your free Ladybug Playdough Mats!

Be sure to check out these other playdough mats!

And for more early learning fun, follow my Learning for Little Ones board on Pinterest!

To get your copy of our Ladybug Playdough Mats free, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll get these playdough mats, plus lots of other exclusive freebies, in our Subscriber Library!

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There’s just something about playing with playdough that captures kids’ attention.

I loved playdough as a child. Every child I knew loved playdough.

So, naturally when I was creating these alphabet and number winter literacy mats, my first thought was to use them with playdough.

Preschool playdough mats can be used to build fine motor skills, to make shapes, and to learn to form letters and numbers.

But there are other ways to use these literacy mats with young learners too!

Keep reading to find out how to get your set of these winter playdough mats.

And, for more winter fun in early grades, take a look at our list of adorable snowman books for kids to read!

Alphabet and Number Winter Literacy Mats for Kids

To use these winter literacy mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are listed below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper or cardstock
• Laminator (optional)
• Playdough (optional)
• Mini erasers (optional)
• Dry erase markers (optional)

This set of winter literacy printables includes 26 letter mats – from A to Z!

Each mat shows both the uppercase and lowercase version of each letter.

And the letters are large enough for students to trace with pens, markers, highlighters, crayons – even their fingers!

There are also number mats featuring numerals from 0 to 10.

All of the mats have a fun wintery background theme!

How to Use Winter Literacy Mats with Early Learners

There are several ways to use this resource to help early learners build literacy skills!

Kids can roll playdough into “ropes” and then connect them to form the uppercase and lowercase letters.

If you decide to laminate the mats, hand out dry erase markers for students to trace the letters!

You can also place the mats at literacy or math centers (for the number mats).

Hand out mini erasers, pom-poms, or math counters for students to trace the letters and numbers.

Or print the mats half-sized!

They’ll be a perfect size for adding to morning tubs or busy bags.

Get a closer look at this resource in the video below!

Scroll down to get your copy of our winter literacy mats!

For more winter learning fun, don’t miss these other ideas!

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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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Spring is just around the corner! And down here, spring usually means lots and lots of bugs. Some are downright frightening to me (palmetto bugs), but some like caterpillars, snails, and butterflies are just adorable.

I thought these cute Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats would be a fun spring-themed addition to our growing collection of Preschool Playdough Mats!

These are a super way to work on fine motor skills, counting, and letters with toddlers and preschoolers!

If you love these, be sure to grab our Rainbow Playdough Mats as well!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats

To use these birds and bugs spring playdough mats, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are used below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Printer (with ink)
• Printer paper
• Laminator (for keeping the mats sturdy)
• Playdough

These preschool playdough mats are a wonderful spring activity for toddlers and preschoolers!

There are 36 mats in all – one for each letter of the alphabet (featuring uppercase and lowercase) and one for each number 0-9.

This is great fine motor skills practice and an excellent way to help them learn to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters and their numbers!

Scroll down to get your Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats!

Don’t miss these other spring resources!

To get your copy of our Preschool Playdough Mats: Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>>>> Birds and Bugs Spring Playdough Mats <<<<<

Check out loads of Free Homeschool Printables from iHomeschool Network! Head over to grab freebies for your homeschool from my fellow bloggers!

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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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As the nights get longer, we start to see more and more forest animals peeking out of the trees in our neighborhood. So, I thought it was a great time of year to introduce a set of Forest Playdough Alphabet Mats!

These would go great with a forest unit study or a unit study on animal homes, especially if your family includes toddlers and preschoolers who are learning the alphabet!

These are wonderful for building fine motor skills and early literacy with young kids! Plus, they’re an excellent choice for quiet time play.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Preschool Playdough Mats, including beach number mats, apple tree counting mats, and more!

Preschool Playdough Mats: Forest Playdough Alphabet Mats

To use these forest playdough alphabet mats, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Color printer with ink
• Printer paper
• Laminator (This one has been a staple in our homeschool for years.)
• Assorted playdough

In this set, you’ll find forest-themed mats for each letter of the alphabet from A to Z.

Both the uppercase and lowercase letters are shown, so you can introduce them both if you like.

To make sure these mats last, it’s a good idea to laminate them before use.

That way, once the kids are done, you can just wipe them clean and store them for another time.

Kids’ Books about the Forest:

For even more learning fun about life in the forest, check out these kids’ books about forests!

Don’t miss these other preschool learning ideas!

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