Playdough Mats: Free Printable Play doh Mat Templates
Keep little hands busy with playdough mats! These fun free printable Play-Doh mats are perfect for easy sensory play!
Playdough Activity
If you haven’t heard of playdough mats, I’m so excited to share this awesome parenting resource with you!
But also, if you have heard of playdough mats, I’m equally excited to share this FREE indoor activity for kids resource with you!
My toddler adores Play-Doh. Sometimes we buy a set of Play-Doh, but more often than not, we use my easy play dough recipe to make our own. It smells amazing, it lasts a long time, and we can create custom colors. It’s also free of chemicals and technically an edible playdough recipe that’s taste-safe for little ones. We’ve tried a handful of homemade playdough recipes, and this classic from my mom is tops!
Naturally, there are so many ways to play with play dough! I used to not love it due to the mess or residue left behind. But once I realized how long even toddlers play with this fun sensory play for kids item, I changed my tune! Add in our crafting mat vinyl mat we call our mess mat, and I got over the play dough phobia really quickly!
Educational Playdough Activity Kiddos Love
At the beginning of the year, I got a little more intentional about choosing activities at home that help my preschoolers get ready for kindergarten. While we’re all about math skills and math activities, phonics/letter sounds, and letter recognition, I was shocked to learn there’s a huge skill modern kids are losing! I read an interesting article how kids are losing fine motor skills, because of screen time and lack of fine motor strength basic activities parents no longer provide.
I know many of us shy away from the mess of scissors and cutting activities, letting kids loose with markers, and sometimes even playdough activities. But this study changed my mind and recommitted me to building those hand muscles and brains!
And since my kids love playdough, I got right to work developing play dough mats to enhance learning and make it a fun educational activity for kids. And I’m so glad to offer free resources to other moms looking for prek-12 resources and just something fun to keep little hands busy!
Playdough Mats
Do you know using a play-doh mat another easy way to contain play dough and help with eye-hand coordination? And today, we’re hooking you up with four of them that are completely free to you!
What Is a Play-Dough Mat?
It’s a mat with a template or pattern kids use to create pictures or scenes using play dough. Essentially, they’re a black and white image printed and then laminated. This makes them ready for kids to place and smash playdough on to create colorful pictures.
What are the benefits of using a play-doh mat?
There are a lot!
- Easy creative play
- Eye-handing coordination skill development
- Sensory learning
- Artistic expression
- Hours of fun for kids
- Easy quiet time activity when you’re stuck indoors
What do you need to make one?
I’m glad you asked! Here’s an easy tutorial to help you create a play dough mat at home!
How to Make a Playdough Mat
Create your own playdough mat for easy sensory learning and play with this easy resource!
Materials
- Playdough mat FREE Download Templates
- Paper or cardstock
- Self laminating paper
- Play dough
Instructions
- Download the FREE Play doh mat template document. Print them on a B&W printer on white paper.
- Open your pack of self-laminating sheets, and follow the instructions to laminate each paper. *See notes
- Laminating seals instantly, so you're ready to grab your play dough and start playing immediately!
Notes
* You can laminate a single page, or place two pages together with print sides facing out and laminate both.
We love to do each individually in case multiple kids want to use the mats. But there's no harm in being resourceful and having kids flip over one mat to find a new picture and scene to play with!
*Don't skip this step! It's what adds durability and a solid frame and makes the mats reusable without damage.
*You can use a page protector and keep these in a binder for easy organization.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Free Printable Playdough Mats
I’m so excited to share these free printable playdough mats! We designed them to appeal to toddlers through elementary ages. Some are more simple images for smaller hands. A few have more complex designs to let older kids enjoy more attention to detail and work on greater dexterity and artistic play.
What’s included?
- Dinosaur Playdough Mat
- 1 Bug playdough mat: a caterpillar
- A Rainbow playdough mat
- 1 food playdough mat: a triple-decker ice cream cone
All are included in one free download. Feel free to use them all or just print the one you need!
GRAB YOURS HERE!
*These play mats are for personal use only. They are not intended for commercial use or resale.
*Teachers ARE permitted to print and use classroom sets. As a former teacher, I’m here to cheer you on and I hope this free playdough mats printable helps!
How to Play with playdough mats
I’d offer kids a few different colors of play do to work with. Let them know it’s their job to decorate or color in the pictures.
I highly recommend using our homemade playdough recipe. It’s a lot softer than Play doh, and it spreads and molds with mats easier. I promise it’s easy to make a batch whenever you need one, and you probably have the supplies on hand. But if it’s not your jam to make your own, you’re good to use any play dough you wish!
Feel free to mix up instructions, colors, and play mats to help kids explore and have fun with this sensory play art medium!
You can have kids add to the scene like a leaf for the caterpillar, the sun or even the solar system around the rainbow, or any other great addition they can think of!
You may also want to add some tools like plastic knives, toothpicks, and a kid-friendly rolling pin all set-out to encourage play and molding.
Educator Ideas
Whether you homeschool, teach prek – 1st grade, special education, or are a mom looking for something fun for kids to do, this is a great activity to have on hand!
Include the play dough mats in a morning bin, as a self-staring activity, or print each lowercase letter and uppercase letters to use in literacy centers.
You could do the same with numbers for building number recognition and math skills while you work on fine motor skills.
Don’t Forget to Make it Fun!
No matter what your role is in helping kids and utilizing play dough mats, I hope your kids and students enjoy them as much as mine have!
Pin this Idea!
Need more creative kid activities? Check out these resources:
Nature Scavenger Hunt + Free Printable!
Our Favorite Origami Kits for Kids
Scratch Art: Easy Art Activity for Kids
Get 365 Date Ideas!
We want to help you have the best date nights ever! Grab this FREE printable with 365 date ideas, a date for every day of the year so you never run out of ideas!
