I want to count with play dough!
Why is play dough such a winner? Is it the squishyness? The ability to use it to create anything? The fact that we can make it so easily with the hundreds of quick and easy internet recipes?
Who knows! All I know is that kids love it. I love it. And it’s a great tool for helping kids to stay focused while thinking about numbers at the same time. Without further ado here are 10 (and more) great ways to count with play dough!
Make sure you click through to all the free printables in this post, care of the lovely bloggers below!
Count with play dough ideas
1. Count and smash
- Count and smash from Stir the Wonder. This is pretty self-explanatory!
- Count to 100 play dough squish game from Learn and Play Today. She has a free 100s chart for this activity.
2. Pirate counting mats
- Pirate play dough mats from Life Over C’s. Pirates 11-20, sunflowers 1-10, sunflowers 11-20, tree 1-10, tree in Spanish 1-10.
- Hand division play dough mats from Liz’s Early Learning Spot. Free counting mats to 10 to use with play dough or other objects. They’re intended to be small for fine motor skill practice.
3. Roll a monster
- Roll a monster from Mom Inspired Life. It has a free recording sheet for how many bits and pieces were used to create the monster!
- Here’s another roll and count idea from An Idea on Tuesday. Simply roll the die and create that number of play dough balls. Simple, but effective!
- Creating faces on butcher paper, also from An Idea on Tuesday. Draw circles for faces and use different numbers of play dough bits to create faces. I love the photos on this post, so much fun!
4. Load the trucks
- Load the trucks play dough mats from PreKinders. Load the correct number of ‘stones’ onto the back of the truck, free printable included.
- PreKinders has many, many free activities on her site: if you want to go by theme here are her play dough counting mats.
- Carrots and Rabbits, Cookies, Dinosaurs, Dog and Cat Food, Easter, Feed the Giraffe, Fish, Gingerbread, Ladybugs, Leprechauns, Monsters, Snow Man, Space, Squirrels, St Patrick’s Day, Worms,
5. Cupcakes and candles
- Counting and number skills with play dough from The Imagination Tree.
- Cupcake number play dough mats from Playdough to Plato. Free printable.
- Cupcake play dough counting from Mamma’s Fun World.
- Counting with spaghetti and beads from The Imagination Tree.
6. Spring math games
- Plant the flowers from Fun-A-Day. Roll the die and add the flowers!
- Play dough counting garden from Fantastic Fun and Learning.
- Counting activity tray from The Imagination Tree. Since we’re counting objects stuck into play dough, here’s a lovely example of a tray of objects plus a nice lump of play dough for squishing all the objects into!
7. Ladybugs
- Ladybug counting mats from Fun with Mama. Free printable.
- Ladybug play dough mats from PreKinders. Free printable.
- Play dough ladybirds from Read and Create.
8. Play dough and craft sticks
- This is a great idea for creating a flexible and easy number line from Tot School.
9. Peanuts counting mats
- Peanuts counting mats from Playdough to Plato. These are free and you’ll also pick up Peanuts number puzzles 1-40 at the same time… bargain! Malia also has free apple play dough mats and free cupcake play dough mats!
10 Popcorn Counting
- Popcorn counting play dough mats from Simple Fun for Kids. Free printable included. Add the correct amount of ‘popcorn’ to the popcorn boxes!
Want to see more counting roundup posts?
Looking for more counting activities?
Pop over to my TpT store for more counting products: within 5, within 20, within 100 and introducing number lines 0-10.
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