I have long lusted after some of the gorgeous felted play mats like the ones you see on Etsy or in Steiner/Waldorf shops. But felting is not my thing so I’ve just admired from afar, until I got the crazy idea to make a printable one!
I started with two very simple scenes – sea, sand and forest, and a garden with a pond and path. These are very simple play mats, with the idea to spark imagination rather than really direct play.
Of course my printed play mats are not nearly as beautiful as the felted version, and since I only have a regular A4 desk jet printer they are limited in size, but that didn’t seem to bother Noah when I set them up for him to explore.
I taped the sea sand and forest play mat to a larger sheet of paper and taped that to the table, just to give it some more stability. Then I collected a few bits and pieces such as wooden trees, blocks, stones, and shells and hauled the huge tub of animals out next to the table. The rest was up to Noah
At first he hunted for all the Australian animals (don’t worry, kangaroos are not really fluro orange!) and then looked for animals that could live in the water.
After a little while he wanted to try out the second play mat, this time with dinosaurs! And later he made the busiest zoo I have ever seen, with animals crammed in everywhere!
You can download each of these simple imaginative play mats so you can play too.
If your printer has the ‘borderless printing’ option, you can use that to print these play mats so that they fill the whole piece of A4 paper.
Download the sea, sand and forest play mat here.
Download the garden path play mat here.
We’ve had so much fun with these simple printable play mats that I will have to make some more. Noah wants a ‘bolcano with lots of lava’ (???) I was thinking more along the lines of a river??
I’d love to hear your ideas for more printable play mats or any other printables you’d like!
For more great ideas for preschool aged kids buy this great ebook!
Bek @ Just For Daisy says
Oh you are too clever! I love them!! We made ourselves a farm play mat by sewing lots of scraps of fabric together and adding some knits and other pieces to it. But how great to be able to print these off and play!!
cathy says
These are fantastic, thanks. As for suggestions, how about an under water sea scape.
Kate Lloyd says
LOVE this and will be printing asap! Thank you Kate. It’s so funny how play can start out so precise but end up with everything all in together. So brilliant. LOL
My little girl would love anything that would have her matching things together, although I know you already have shared some great printables that do that.
Elizabeth Cavanaugh says
I absolutely love your printable play mats. I’m going to print them out on t shirt transfer paper and then iron them onto felt for stability :) Thank you so much, my kids are going to love these!
Bec says
These are fantastic! My son would love a quarry for his trucks and loaders! And what about a magical fairy garden.
Mamas Hands says
Thank you for these…my girls are just loving them! I hope it is okay, I wrote about these on my blog and linked back here so that others can discover them as well. Thanks for sharing!
Jodie says
Thank you for these fabulous mats!! I have been wanting something like this for a while for my boy to use with his collection of animals. I have the luxury of an A3 printer so I was able to print them bigger which is perfect. Thanks again!!
Cowboy Trent says
Oh MY GOSH!!! Thank you so much for creativity! These are wonderful and will be a great addition to our playmats and small world play. The felting is something I’m interested in but I’m short on time right now. This will give us something to work from too! Best Wishes!
Jeanette Nyberg says
No way! These are the coolest things ever, seriously. Beautiful job- I want to print them and laminate them.
Amanda says
Great idea! My son has a large rug with water and land he uses for this type of play.
I do have one question. Where did you get the trees??
Lisa Mullarkey says
Hi Kate
As a reception teacher, these mats are a brilliant idea for inspiration. Other ideas would be strange planets, the moon, or in space generally with planets and stars, the path in the Gruffalo story or a forest with a cottage for Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Bears etc. A road and roundabout etc or even an underground theme with burrows and roots for use with plastic minibeast toys!! Just some thoughts.
Emma @ P is for Preschooler says
This is great! I’ve often longed for those play mats too, but they’re so much money. I even tried to draw my own once (it wasn’t pretty! lol!). But these are just perfect. Thank you!
Lorna Motherwell says
Even with an A4 printer you can make these play scenes larger by selecting the poster in your printer options. Then increase the % increase you would like to enlarge it by. On my printer options it shows a preview of how many A4 sheets it would print out over and where the joins would be so you can fiddle with the numbers until it’s how you want it. Then just print, trim and glue or tape the overlaps together and your scene is as large as your imagination!
Sharmi says
Hi, I love this and anything which involves imaginary play. In the past you send a picture of a personalised wooden box. My son loves dinosaurs so I made one in using your idea. He loved it and kept saying it was the best Christmas gift he had ever received :) So thank you!! I am going to print these mats out now for him so he can use them with his dinosaurs as well :) He will love it. But just one thought. Would it be possible for you to upload two versions e.g one is the same one as you have uploaded here but the other one exactly symmetrical please? That way, we could print out both and then stick them to bigger paper to form a big mat? I tried to see if it was possible to print it in that way but I couldn’t do it. Thank you once again :)
Meg says
too cute! thanks for sharing :)
Louise B says
Thank you just what I have been looking for to put with small world play
adi olabi says
Great job! I was also looking for some play mats to use for different stories like Three Billy Goats Gruff , Goldilocks and the Three Bears or any other, if you can do them or anybody knows a site where I can find such things will be great to hear! Thanks again for your effort and sharing!
Candice says
Hi! These are great! I was just wondering what program you used to draw these up on the computer…I would love to make a few girly ones for my daughter!
katepickle says
I used adobe illustrator to draw these but I am sure you could use any image/drawing software, or even just paint on paper.
Lorelle says
These are fantastic….will start making some now for grandchildren which I hope to have one day. Have you thought of a Space theme.
sheena says
Wow Thanks you just printed these added animals popped into bags for take along toys for the children when we are out and having to wait.
Lindsey says
Love the printables. A snow and ice one would also be great. Thanks
katepickle says
Ask and you shall receive…
Frozen Land and Space Land printable play mats can be found here! https://picklebums.com/2014/06/24/printable-imaginative-play-mats-2/
Sarah says
These mats are great, thank you for sharing! Kids’ creativity should be encouraged and it doesn’t have to take a lot of work to nourish their imaginations.
jenny says
I can’t wait to try this with my kiddos today!! thank you
DeniseMarie says
Wow!! This is SO cool! TFS!! I am gonna use these to make little fun worlds to ship in Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes!! Rock on, Momma!!
Jasmine says
Thanks for sharing these they are amazing!
Rebecca says
Thank you for these lovely playmats. I have been wanting to make a felt version for my sons, and I think I will use these as templates. It was super generous of you to make them available for free.
Melissa says
Thank you so much for sharing these PDF’s. I’m sure my kids will have lots of imaginative fun with them!
RanaMuck says
I love the ideas people had. I have a couple: using the same style as these 2, a pig pen (just shades of brown), a pond (shades of blue), a meadow (shades of brown with flowers on it).
Tanya says
thank you, these are great , wanting to put together some busy books/ cheap play ideas for my grandson, some for now some for Xmas stocking xx
Rinzin says
Hi Kate, I just love your great ideas and especially the big box town and your great introduction is so frank like “messy kitchen” and “obsession with printable” , I am mom of 4 year old son and working, I too have messy kitchen and obsession with printable. Thanks for sharing your great ideas with us.