The Many Uses of Play Dough Mats

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Play dough mats are a great hands on way for young children to learn letter, number and sight word recognition.  You may think play dough mats are just a tool children can use play dough on to make the shape of the letters or numbers on the mat.  That is true.  Children use play dough to form the letters, numbers or words on their mat.  This only scratches the surface of ideas to use with these mats!  Now, lets try thinking outside the box for other ways to use these mats in the classroom, other than the standard play dough!


One of the simplest, and cleanest, ideas for play dough mats is to simply let the children use their fingers to trace the letters.  By using their hands to trace the letters, numbers or words, they are creating muscle memory to allow them an easier transition to writing later on.


Another fun idea is to use classroom manipulatives to cover the mat.  Above we used the circle pieces from our attribute blocks to fill our lower case a mat.


Another fun idea is to let the children drive trains......


 or cars along their mats to, again, practice muscle memory. 


You can also become festive with play dough mats and use holiday candy to cover the mat.  Above we used conversation hearts.  Other candy ideas can include any type of hard candy, or chocolate candies still in the wrapper.

Another idea, to make mats more festive, is to use mini erasers to cover the mats.

This next idea needs a little teacher prep.  Simply just laminate the mats (or place in page protectors) and have children use dry erase markers to trace inside the letters!

As you can see, there are many ways to make use of play dough mats than just using play dough.  Do you have some other unique ways to use play dough mats other than what is mentioned above?  Let me know in the comments!


To get your copy of sight word play dough mats, follow THIS LINK for all 220 words!


Do you need a specific list of words for your classroom or home?  Let me know and I can make a play dough mat set just for you!






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