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Fabulous Free Printable Play Dough Mats

Posted on January 6, 2015 19 Comments

We love play dough. Even my big kids enjoy a bit of dough play, and my little one just adores it!

We’ve tried loads of fun play dough activities and ideas over the years, but some of the most fun we’ve had with play dough is when we use some of our printable play dough mats.

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

I’ve been creating printable play dough mats based on my children’s interests for quite a while now, and have built up a collection of favourites.

The aim of our play dough mats is to spark a child’s interest and creativity, without totally directing their play. So these sets are are all open-ended. They are a starting point, designed to inspire creativity and invite kids to play and explore. They are full of blank faces, empty plates, bare gardens, and more, just waiting to be filled with anything you can imagine!

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!

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.

Here are a few suggestions for things you could include in your play dough set up:

  • sequins
  • googly eyes
  • beads
  • plastic gems
  • gum nuts
  • leaves
  • straws
  • tooth picks
  • pipe cleaners
  • sticks
  • glass nuggets

Here’s a fun new playdough recipe to try!

Free Printable Play Dough Mats

We can’t decide which set we love the most, so here they all are. Click on the links below to visit the post and download your favourite set!

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

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.
 

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

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
 

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

Garden and Growing Playdough 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
 

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

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! Free printable play dough mats

Beautiful Bugs PlayDough 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
 

Make a Minion! Free printable Minion play dough mats.

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
 

Free printable pirate themed play dough mats

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
 

Free printable monster play dough mats

Monster Playdough Mats

This set comes with four different monsters to make.

You can find the Monster Play Dough Mats here
 

Free printable Easter play dough mats

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


 

mermaid playdough set up

Mermaid Playdough Mat

This mermaid needs a tail!
You can find the Mermaid playdough mat here.

How to Use our Printable Playdough Mats

All of the our free printable play dough sets are A4 sized pdf files, so 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!

If you have an idea for our next set of play dough mats, please leave a comment and let me know!

 

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.

Space Place Dough! 6 Space themed play dough mats plus 2 pages of space accessories.
Space Playdough Set
City play set - 6 play dough mats and a page of printable accessories.
City Playdough Set
ocean play dough mats
Ocean Playdough Set

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Filed Under: Activities for kids, featured, Printables Tagged With: activities for preschoolers, activities for toddlers, play dough, play dough mats, playdough

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Camille says

    These are all so super cute!! Thanks so very much!!

    Reply
  2. Sharra says

    Beach mats, lighthouse, camping, farms

    Reply
  3. Tanya says

    Where’s the ice cream cone? Kids would enjoy making the ice cream from playdough to top the cone.

    Reply
  4. luna wolf says

    Animals, seaside,

    Reply
  5. Holly says

    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! :)

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      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/

      Reply
  6. Aaleyah says

    These are so amazing thank you so much for sharing them

    Reply
  7. Melanie says

    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! ????

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      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/

      Reply
  8. Ozlem says

    So amazing! Funfood, animals, seaside printable versions.. Thank you.

    Reply
  9. JUDY SMITH says

    Love the playdough mats but what are t hey made of???

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      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.

      Reply
  10. Jey says

    What about princess? crowns? I love this website!!! Congrats!!!

    Reply
  11. christy says

    Thank you very much for all the wonderful activities and printables that you offer up so graciously. You are a true inspiration.

    Reply
  12. Katrina Santistevan says

    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.

    Reply
  13. Paola says

    Medios de transporte (coche, camión, autonus…) es una buena idea.

    Reply
  14. Danielle says

    So many good ones here! My 2 year old is going to LOVE the monsters and bugs range :)

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Happy Bday to The Artful Parent (+ Birthday Party Printables) says:
    January 24, 2015 at 8:17 am

    […] them. We especially enjoy her playdough people printables in our home. In fact, all of her playdough mats are pretty […]

    Reply
  2. Make a Minion! Free Printable Play Dough Mats - Picklebums - activities, recipes, free printables and life with four kids says:
    June 2, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    […] If you like these you might like some of our other free printable play dough mats. You can find out about all of them here. […]

    Reply

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