These free printable play dough mats are a quick and easy way to set up a playdough activity your kids will love!
These colourful, interactive, and open-ended play dough mats not only encourage creative play but they are also a great way to work on fine motor skills, and lots more essential skills and early learning concepts for young children. Learn all about the benefits of playdough mats for kids, find out the best way to use them and then choose from our list of seasonal, holiday, and lots more fun play dough mats that are free and easy to download, print, and play!
I love play dough, and I love playdough mats!
Playdough and playdough mats can be used in so many different ways, and kids of all ages just love this activity – even big kids love playing with playdough if you give them a chance!
I’ve tried loads of fun play dough activities and ideas with my kids over the years, (like this glow stick playdough, or this super cool space playdough) but some of the most fun we’ve had is when we combine playdough with some printable playdough mats.
Benefits of Using Play Dough Mats with Your Kids
Whether you are looking for a fun activity to do at home with your kids, or a great activity for your early years classroom, playdough mats are a quick, easy, and affordable way to set up a sensory activity that kids will love. Playdough mats are a low-prep, easy to store, playdough activity that you can use over and over again.
Playdough mats are a great sensory activity for kids and can be a calming activity too. Kids who are sensory seekers will love using playdough, and for those kids with tactile defensiveness, a playdough mat could be a great way to encourage them to give playdough a try.
They are a great way to follow your children’s interests and build on their knowledge through open-ended and creative play, and a fun way to reinforce specific concepts. Plus, they are a great way to work on a range of essential developmental skills.
What do kids learn from using play dough mats?
Here are just a few things kids can learn from using playdough mats:
- Fine motor skills – including hand and finger strength, grasping, manual dexterity and more pre-writing skills.
- Eye-hand coordination – coordinating hand and eye movements and working on visual-motor coordination.
- Gross motor skills – using the larger muscles of the upper arm which are also important for fine motor development and writing.
- Language and social skills – including talking about what they are making with other children and adults, sharing ideas, sharing items etc.
- Creative thinking – including imagination, decision making, planning and more.
What Are Open-Ended Playdough Mats?
All of our free printable playdough mats are open-ended. That means that there is no one ‘correct’ way to use them.
The aim of our open-ended play dough mats is to spark a child’s interest and creativity, without totally directing their play. They are a starting point, designed to invite kids to play and explore. There are no right or wrong way to use these mats, so if Santa wears green shorts and the snail has wings, that’s totally ok! Let your kids be creative! They are full of blank faces, empty plates, bare gardens, and more, just waiting to be filled with anything you can imagine!
Why would you choose an open-ended playdough mat?
Choosing an open-ended playdough mat inspires creativity and imagination. They allow children to express their ideas and knowledge in any way they like, and encourages creative thinking, problem solving and ingenuity.
This also makes them the perfect playdough mats for toddlers, as well as for preschoolers and older kids as each child can use them however they like, at whatever level they are at.
The Best Play Dough and Accessories for Playdough Mats.
You can use home-made play dough, shop bought dough, modelling clay/plasticine, or any kind of dough. You don’t need anything other than the mats and the dough, but collecting a few accessories to go with the theme is loads of fun too.
We like to use some loose parts, crafty bits and pieces, accessories with play dough mats
Here are a few suggestions for things you could include in your play dough mat set up:
- sequins
- googly eyes
- beads
- plastic gems
- gum nuts
- leaves
- straws
- tooth picks
- pipe cleaners
- sticks
- glass nuggets
How to Use The Printable Playdough Mats
All of the free printable play dough sets are A4 sized pdf files, and 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.
I use a regular desktop inkjet printer to print our mats. I print onto regular printer paper and then laminate each one. If you want to save on laminating pockets, laminate two sheets together, back to back. You could also slip them in a page protector, or use write and wipe pocket.
I’ll also let you in on a little secret…
These play dough mats also make great drawing prompts, and, our free printable drawing prompts also work great as play dough mats!
Free Printable Play Dough Mats
I have lots of free printable playdough mats to choose from, simply click on the blue link and you’ll be taken to the blog post where you can download the playdough mats – free, no login or email address required.
People Playdough Mats
This set comes with 8 mats – bodies and faces in four different skin tones.
You can find the People Play Dough Mats here.
Fun Food Playdough Mats
This set comes with 3 mats – ‘make an ice cream’, ‘make a cake’ and ‘what’s for dinner?’
You can find the Fun Food Play Dough Mats here
Garden and Growing Play Dough Mats
This set comes with 3 mats – ‘what is growing in your posts?’, ‘what is growing in your garden?’, and ‘what is growing on your tree?’
You can find the Garden and Growing Play Dough Mats here
Christmas Play Dough Mats.
This set comes with 3 mats – ‘decorate the Christmas tree’, ‘decorate some Christmas cookies’ and ‘Santa needs some clothes!’.
You can find theChristmas Play Dough Mats here
Beautiful Bugs Play Dough Mats.
This set comes with 4 mats – ‘This snail needs a shell’, ‘Who belongs to these legs?’, ‘Who lives on this web?’ and ‘Give the butterfly some wings’.
You can find the Beautiful Bugs Play Dough Mats here
Minion Playdough Mats
This set comes with two play dough mats plus a page of printable minion eyes.
You can find the Make a Minion Play Dough Mats here
Pirate Playdough Mats
This set comes with 4 mats – ‘What does your pirate flag look like?’, ‘What does your pirate ship look like?’, ‘Make a treasure map’ and ‘What is in your treasure chest.’
You can find the Pirate Play Dough Mats here
Monster Playdough Mats
This set comes with four different monsters to make.
You can find the Monster Play Dough Mats here
Easter Playdough Mats
This set comes with four mats – ‘Decorate an Easter Hat’, ‘Decorate an Easter egg’, ‘Who belongs to these ears?’ and ‘What is hatching out of this egg?’.
You can find the Easter Play Dough Mats here
Valentine’s Playdough Mats
There are four playdough mats in this Valentine’s Day set – a heart to decorate, a bunch of flowers, a love bug, and some chocolates.
You can find the Valentine’s Day playdough mats here.
More Playdough Mats in Our Shop
If you 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.
Have fun with these ocean playdough mats and printable accessories.
Your kids will love these space playdough mats.
These city playdough mats and accessories are perfect for kids who love cars trucks and trains.
These are all so super cute!! Thanks so very much!!
Beach mats, lighthouse, camping, farms
Where’s the ice cream cone? Kids would enjoy making the ice cream from playdough to top the cone.
Animals, seaside,
I printed out a batch of your playdough mats, and my typically craft-averse four-year-old boy LOVES them. Thank you! What about an ocean/beach set? Make a shell for a hermit crab, build/decorate a sandcastle, fill up a sunken treasure chest with pirate booty. . .I love your site–keep up the great work! :)
A beach/ocean theme is a great idea!
I just made a couple of ocean drawing prompts for my kids before we went on holiday to Tasmania. You can find them here if your kids would like them – https://picklebums.com/2015/03/31/sea-drawing-prompts/
These are so amazing thank you so much for sharing them
I LOVE your site!! I just printed the comic strip pages for my 11year old son. He’s earning time on his PS3 and iPad over the summer. He’s been practicing cursive writing, reading his required reading book (Chomp by Carl Hiaasen) and was just asking me what else he could do… Then I stumbled on your printables on Pinterest! I also teach Pre-k children that have speech/language and/or developmental delays. Your play dough mats are awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your ideas! ????
Sounds like you are having a busy summer! So glad you are enjoying our printables – you might also like our ‘un-boring seriously cool’ writing prompts – https://picklebums.com/2015/05/19/writing-prompts-for-kids/
So amazing! Funfood, animals, seaside printable versions.. Thank you.
Love the playdough mats but what are t hey made of???
They are simply printed onto regular printer paper, then laminated. Or you could cover them with self adhesive plastic or put them in a plastic sheet protector.
What about princess? crowns? I love this website!!! Congrats!!!
Thank you very much for all the wonderful activities and printables that you offer up so graciously. You are a true inspiration.
I’m doing prek at home for my son and my nephew. They love the playdoh mats. I try to keep class as interactive as possible. I would love to see some alphabet mats done. The ones I’ve been finding online are rather plain.
So many good ones here! My 2 year old is going to LOVE the monsters and bugs range :)