Grab some playdough and make some people with these free printable people play dough mats. There are bodies and faces to print, make and decorate.
My kids used to have a ‘fashion model’ colouring book filled with blank bodies that you could draw on, adding clothes, hair and make-up. It was lots of fun, and gave me the idea of making something similar for play dough, something that could be re-used over and over.
These people play dough mats are such a simple idea, but they are so much fun and inspire so much creativity!
Little ones will love making silly faces and decorating the bodies, and older kids will love adding all kinds of creative details to their playdough people.
Here’s a fun new playdough recipe to try!
Making playdough people and faces is a great activity for an ‘All about me’ theme, or just a fun activity that focuses on getting to know yourself.
My middle child loved making someone who looked “just like me”, choosing the palest skin tone (he is very fair!) and double checking that his eyes were in fact blue.
These play dough mats also offer lots of opportunities to learn about body parts, clothes, and the ways people are the same as well as different. Making play dough faces is also a great way to explore ideas around feelings and emotions.
It’s also just a lot of fun to choose a body or a face and then get crazy with play dough and accessories! Get creative and design some clothes, shoes or elaborate accessories. Or even turn your person into a monster!
Add a few loose parts and play dough accessories to make it even more creative and fun.
We used :
- googly eyes
- sequins
- pasta
- glass gems
- pony beads
- pipe cleaners
- rolling pins
- plastic knives
You could also use :
- wool
- fabric scraps
- a garlic press (for cool hair!)
- toothpicks
- cut up straws
- cookie cutters
- scissors
Download the Free Printable People Playdough Mats.
These people play dough mats comes in two sets – bodies and faces. There are four skin tones in each set and all you need to do is print them, laminate (or use a dry erase pocket – affiliate link) and you are ready to create.
You can download the people play dough mats here.
You can download the faces play dough mats here.
These printables are A4 sized pdf files, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open them. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized’ paper be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
We’d love to see what you create with these people play dough mats.
If you share a photo of your people playdough creations on instagram I’d love it if you’d tag me (@picklebums) so I can check it out!
More Play Dough Mats
If you like these playdough mats you might like some of our other free printable play dough mats.
And if you really, really love my free playdough mats and would like to support my small business, you might like to check out some of my playdough sets in my shop.
Kate Lloyd says
These are seriously fabulous. I can’t wait to get creative myself! LOL
Bek (Just For Daisy) says
They turned out fabulous!! We are going to have to give this a go! :) Thanks for sharing – you create such wonderful printables!
jackie says
Kate, this is one of the best Playdough activities I’ve seen yet!
Catherine says
Thanks for sharing! What a great idea!
Ness @ One Perfect Day says
Kate these are AWESOME! R is going to love these.
Celena says
This is amazing!We are doing this today!
Tracey says
These are brilliant. My son just opened a new container of play clay yesterday. Do you know the book my Robert Munsch about play clay?
katepickle says
I will have to search for that book at the library! We love Robert Munsch! His website is fab too!
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile says
Such a wonderful idea! Very clever!! :-)
Cybele @ blahblah says
What an awesome idea. Thanks x
Emma says
Hi Kate,
I can’t open the printable play dough mat faces. I was able to do the people but not faces. Any clues? It’s a great idea!
Cheers
Emma
katepickle says
Sorry you are having trouble with the faces Emma…
Do you get a specific error message when you try to open the file?
Did you try downloading them again… perhaps they were corrupted on the way down?
Frog Goose and Bear says
Kate – you are such a creative gem. What a winner of an activity!
Ana says
Can I say BRILLIANT? And can I say it again?
Veens says
Looks so so fun! I hope Aarya likes it too :)
Jackie says
What a fabulous play resource. I’m impressed by the playdough plaits. :)
Elise @ Creative Play Central says
Kate, thank you so much for including us in your post! I love your colourful and gorgeous creations. As you know we are huge fans of play dough dress ups too – they’re always lots of fun to create. Play dough plaits must be the flavour of the month, my daughter has been including them in her play dough and craft creations too :)
Janine says
Love, love, love these. Thank you for sharing, I cannot wait to use these with my kindy and pre-primary students :)
Emily says
Hi! Love these! The faces doesn’t work for me either. No error message, just keeps running and running. ?
katepickle says
It must just be the heavy load on my server… perhaps try again now that the demand is a bit less? If you still have problems let me know.
Monika says
Thank you, lovely Lady, for sharing this brilliant resource! What an awesome activity and such a helpful tool for the little ones. So many avenues to explore and engage them! :)
Deb @ Living Montessori Now says
I love these, Kate! It’s awesome that you included a number of different shades! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome printables. I featured your post as the Free Printable of the Day at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page and on Pinterest. :)
Liliana says
These are lovely! Thanks for sharing!
Stacey says
Thank you! I am going to add these to my son’s human body unit. I think I might give him white fuzzy wires or dough for the bones and colored dough for the organs.
JDaniel4's Mom says
What fun! This will be great to put as an invitation to learn this summer.
Jacqueline says
Thank you so much! These are so great! My 4 kids have been creating all morning! Sharing, laughing, not arguing! This mom is happy!
Naomi Askew says
Thanks so much for this great printable (and your other brilliant printables which I found via Pinterest and have used a lot too, I’m really grateful for you sharing your skills!). I used this for my kids and their friends for a playdate this week and it was a big success! Thanks again!
kiasa says
I LOVE this! Just found it on Pinterest…printing out to use during some hot afternoon downtime today. Thanks!!!
Kelly says
Great idea! Thanks so much!
Christina says
These are great except for the full size people mats are not printing well. The page is a normal 8.5″x11″ and I tried reducing the printing size even but it still is cutting off the feet. Any suggestions?
katepickle says
You need to set your printing options to ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’. We use A4 sized paper here in Australia which is a tiny bit different in size, but if you choose shrink to fit it will shrink everything ever so slightly so they fit on a US ‘letter’ sized page.
oumasma says
Hello!!!!
Sorry for my english, i’m french!
I love this!!!
Merci pour le partage et bonne continuation!!!
Vos idées sont très bonnes et très utiles pour nos enfants!
Great ideas!
Thanks you very much
Bye,bye from to France!!
Christine Jones says
Fantastifc. Have printed off and can’t wait to have a go. Thank you for sharing.
Commonsense Mum says
I’ve just used these with my two kids (3 and 5) and one of their friends and it was lovely to see the different ages playing together. I loved how they wanted to talk to each other about the people they were creating. Thank you!
Dawn Baggett says
These are all so nicely done. It is a great versatile group of items and you are a treasure to share them free! God Bless!
Rachel says
Hi there, I came across your website the other day. LOVE it!!! Thankyou!
Can I ask a question? When you do the playdoh mats and use playdoh and other bits and pieces, do you pull all the accessories out of the playdoh and reuse? or do you chuck out. My 2 daughters get all the playdoh colours mixed up and wondering what you do with it then.
Thanks
Rachel.
katepickle says
We try and rescue and reuse the dough as much as possible. Sometimes it’s not easy or not worth it, but mostly it is.
Often our play dough is a mishmash of colours after a few plays, but the kids are not too bothered by that. Usually we make our own play dough though so it doesn’t last forever anyway.
I hope you enjoy the play dough mats, if you’ve got any ideas for new ones please let me know!
nita dewi says
this is amazing! thank you for sharing :D