Stay At Home Educator

intentional teaching for purposeful learning

  • About
    • Copyright / Disclosure / Privacy Policy
    • Contact
  • Preschool Lesson Plans
  • Literacy
  • STEAM
  • Thematic Activities
  • Shop
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account

Playdough Math Invitation to Play

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.

October 16, 2015 by Sarah Punkoney, MAT

Math centers don’t always have to be a closed, self-checking activity. This playdough math invitation to play is very open ended and it keeps preschoolers busily learning many different math skills.

So much learning takes play with this simple playdough math invitation to play! - Stay At Home Educator

Sometimes the most valuable math center is a hunk of playdough, some rolling pins and lots of math related accessories. Not only did my preschoolers naturally use the playdough in a mathematical kind of way, this was also a great way for me to assess their skills in a natural, non-assessment ind of setting.

Join me regularly via subscribing to Stay At Home Educator by email, Facebook, Twitter @StayAtHomeEdu, and Pinterest.  This post may contain Amazon affiliate links.

Materials for Playdough Math Invitation to Play

  • playdough (You can find my favorite recipe here).
  • counting accessories, such as: number cookie cutters, number tiles, buttons, straws, floral pebbles and dyed lollipop sticks

The Set Up

You can choose to offer all the math accessories in individual containers, but I love making playdough centers using divided vegetable food trays. Now, invite your preschooler to come and play.

Playdough Math Invitation to Play Activity

My preschoolers quickly got to playing with the playdough. Many of them began by rolling out their dough to form a patty. They began to add the math accessories to the playdough, counting and naming numbers as they went along. Some preschoolers began at the number one, and put on of each accessory into their playdough, counting all the way to ten.

So much math can be learned through a playdough math invitation to play! Perfect for preschoolers! - Stay At Home EducatorThe student above added the number eight cookie cutter because she “likes eight. It looks like two balls, like on a snowman!”

Other preschoolers used the materials to play pretend, still all the while counting, adding and subtracting. For example, one student used the number tiles to make a pathway to a castle, which was made out of straws and dyed lollipop sticks.

Another child discovered that the straws could be threaded onto the lollipop sticks, so she carefully counted how many straws could fit on each stick. The number differed as I intentionally did not cut the straws into equal lengths.

So much learning takes play with this simple playdough math invitation to play! - Stay At Home Educator.Birthday cakes were also made, as well as pancakes and cookies. The floral pebbles were used as chocolate chips, and as the children played I encouraged them to count the chocolate chips, or birthday candles, or stepping stones they added. There was a limited supply of the materials, which in sharing meant that some children also practiced addition and subtraction skills. One preschooler needed four candles for her birthday cake, so when another shared his candles, he recounted to see how many he had left, which lead into talk about who had more or less.

As the children played, my role was to ask questions and encourage their play. For a time I played along side them before taking notes that I would later use for assessments to present to their parents during parents-teacher conferences.

Enjoy!

Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about everything in between. Right now, my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction

stayathomeeducator.com/

You might also enjoy:

How to Write Preschool Lesson Plans for Math The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Number Sense in Preschool 72 of the Best Math Picture Books for Kids Build A Train: A Preschool Addition Game

Filed Under: Mathematics, Number Sense Tagged With: Addition, Number Identification and Counting, Subtraction

« Fall Science Center
Fall Process Art for Toddlers »

Comments

  1. Adria says

    April 30, 2016 at 3:39 am

    Thank you for your deeper translation of playing is working. Love your ideas.

Trackbacks

  1. Learning Through Play with a Spring Theme Invitation to Play says:
    April 12, 2016 at 10:24 am

    […] I mentioned, I love invitations to play because the preschoolers take the lead in what they, as individuals, would like to learn. So as I […]

  2. Ocean Themed Inviation to Play says:
    June 7, 2016 at 4:18 pm

    […] is why I love offering my preschoolers some seashells to use in an ocean themed invitation to play. It’s just seashells and playdough, however using their hands to play and change the […]

  3. 40+ Preschool Math Activities that are Super Fun! says:
    September 27, 2016 at 4:37 pm

    […] This Play Dough Math Invitation is open-ended and will keep preschoolers busy while learning a variety of math […]

  4. How to Make Playdough Recipe Without Cream of Tartar says:
    October 14, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    […] daughter took a giant whiff of blue raspberry lemonade scented play dough. As far as a scented play dough recipe goes, the possibilities are endless! Literally. We made grape scented play dough. Apple scented […]

Search This Site

Stay Connected

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Find preschool printables at the Stay at Home Educator on Teachers Pay Teachers buy learn with play book and ebook

PRINTABLE SHOP
PLANNING
LITERACY
MATH
DEVELOPMENT
THEMES
PLAY
Visit Sarah @ Stay At Home Educator's profile on Pinterest.
Stay At Home Educator

© Copyright 2015 Foodie Pro Theme · Genesis Framework · Customizations by Kara Carrero ·

Wordpress