Valentines Cupcake Free Playdough Mats
Are you on the lookout for a fun, creative, and educational activity that your kids will love this Valentine’s Day? Look no further! These free playdough mats are perfect for keeping your little ones engaged in learning letter recognition while also helping them develop their fine motor skills.
In this blog post, we’ll be sharing how you can use these Valentine playdough mats at home, along with some tips on how to make playdough. So, whether you’re a seasoned pro or a newbie to the world of DIY playdough and playdough activities, we’ve got you covered.
These free playdough mats are all the rage in preschool classrooms because what little one wouldn’t adore a Valentine cupcake theme?! But that’s not all – these mats also serve a dual purpose as fine motor skills tools, promoting dexterity and coordination in young hands.
Playdough activities are a fantastic way to enhance fine motor skills in children. The act of squishing, rolling, and shaping the dough is not just fun, but also contributes significantly to the development of muscle control, hand-eye coordination, and even creativity.
In fact, working with playdough is one of the most effective hand strengthening activities! Here is a post that is all about how playdough strengthens hands in preparation for fine motor work.
Our specially designed playdough mats provide a structured space for your children to work with playdough on these essential skills. And with a sweet Valentine cupcake theme, they’re sure to capture your child’s interest!
As you continue reading, you’ll discover a myriad of creative ways to use these playdough mats to boost your child’s fine motor skills. If you’re a huge fan of playdough for developing fine motor skills, then you’ll love this Playdough Cookbook that features over 45 unique playdough recipes.
-
45 Playdough Recipes$10.00
What is the Best Playdough Recipe for Homemade Playdough?
The best type of playdough to use with playdough mats is homemade. Homemade playdough is soft, pliable, and perfect for little hands to manipulate. It’s non-toxic and safe, making it an excellent choice for children.
Homemade playdough recipes have just the right texture, too – not too sticky that it would adhere to the mats, yet not too dry that it crumbles easily. This balance ensures that the playdough can be shaped and molded into all kinds of creative designs without damaging the mats.
Here are our favorite playdough recipes to use with these free playdough mats for Valentine’s Day.
- Brown Playdough Recipes (like chocolate playdough)
- Playdough Recipe Without Cream of Tartar
- Classic Cooked Playdough Recipe
- Silky Soft Playdough Recipe
And, if you’re looking for the best ways to make scented playdough recipes, then check out this post all about how to make scented playdough using your favorite recipe. You can even make cake batter scented playdough! Or, try cotton candy scented playdough!
Valentine Cupcake Playdough Mats for Letter Recognition
These playdough mats are actually pulling triple duty. They create a structured space for using playdough. They work fine motor skills. But since each mat features a letter of the alphabet, they also help develop letter recognition skills!
Using playdough is one of our favorite hands-on letter recognition activities.
What’s Included
These alphabet playdough mats include every letter of the alphabet. Each page features a capital letter to practice letter formation. In the top right corner of each mat is a square where preschoolers can match the lower case letter card with a beginning sound picture.
Additional Supplies
- playdough
- small manipulatives (for additional activities)
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.
- Exquisite Material and Craftsmanship: the Valentines Day acrylic hearts are made of quality acrylic…
- Flexible Color Options: the acrylic heart rhinestones come in 2 different delightful colors, pink…
- Easy and Practical DIY Accessory: with their flat and silver backs, these acrylic hearts vase…
- Valentine’s Day Acrylic Hearts: Package includes 110 pcs acrylic hearts in 8 different colors.Each…
- High Quality:The coloful acrylic hearts are made of good quality acrylic material, nontoxic and no…
- Valentine’s Day Decoration: Lovely coloful heart gems are suitable for wedding tables, table…
- Quantity: Package includes 820 Pcs Valentine’s Day Acrylic Heart Gems Heart Shaped Acrylic Gemstone…
- Dimensions: Colorful Heart Shaped Acrylic Gemstones measure in 2 sizes, appr. 0.4″ in diameter and…
- Color: In four romantic colors of red, rose red, pink and purple, these Acrylic Heart Ornaments are…
How to Make Playdough Mats
These playdough mats come ready to use! All you have to do is print them out in heavy cardstock and laminate for added durability. Alternatively, you can slide the mats into dry erase sleeves, but the beginning sound cards will still need to be laminated.
-
45 Playdough Recipes$10.00
How to Use the Playdough Mats Printable
Unlike other playdough mats, these mats can be used in multiples ways, including several in which do not include playdough at all!
But since these mats also work on beginning sound skills along with letter formation and letter recognition, there’s an additional step besides molding playdough onto the mats.
Preschoolers also have a pile of beginning sound cards, with the lower case letter printed on them, to find and place on the mat.
Here’s how we use them:
Playdough Mats for Letter Recognition
Invite your preschooler to select a mat. If your preschooler is new to the alphabet, a letter from his name is good, or if you are following my Daily Lessons in Preschool Literacy Curriculum, then choose the mat that corresponds to the week you are currently teaching.
Have your preschooler identify the letter on the mat and then use playdough to form the letter.
Preschoolers who are more coordinated in their fine motor skills can try rolling snakes or ropes and then forming the letter.
Preschoolers who are less coordinated might prefer to simply smoosh the playdough onto the letter. Either approach is fine and both have merits depending on the skill level of your preschooler.
Finally, invite your preschooler to search through the pile of beginning sound cards to find the corresponding letter to place in the box in the upper right corner of the mat.
If your preschooler struggles with finding the right letter among all the others of the alphabet, arrange a couple of letters from which your preschooler can search, rather than the entire alphabet at once.
Valentines Fine Motor Mats
Playdough is not necessary to make use of these alphabet playdough mats. Your preschooler can practice building letters using small manipulatives and still work on their letter recognition skills.
Preschoolers can carefully place thematic items, like these small pink and red acrylic gems, onto the letter until the letter is fully formed. Add some additional sound practice by encouraging your preschooler to make the letter sound for each gem they place on the mat.
Alphabet Mats for Letter Formation Practice
If you’re looking for something quick and simple that has easy clean up, these playdough mats can still be sued sans the playdough! Time to get out the dry erase markers.
Invite your preschooler to use a thick dry erase marker to trace the interior of the letter. Then, for additional practice, have your preschooler use their finger to trace the letter again and erase it!
Valentines Playdough Fine Motor Mats
Another alternative for using these mats is to use them with both playdough and manipulatives together. This is hands-down my preschoolers’ favorite was to practice letter recognition with these mats!
Start by forming the letter with playdough, wither by making snakes or by smooshing. Then, use the acrylic gems to push into the playdough to form the letter again.
And like the activity above, encourage your preschooler to make the letter sound as they roll out the playdough and place the gems.
And of course, all these ides should be followed by finding the matching letter and beginning sound card to place in the box in the upper right corner.
-
45 Playdough Recipes$10.00
Valentine’s Day Books for Kids
- Hardcover Book
- Dean, James (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Numeroff, Laura (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 24 Pages – 12/17/2019 (Publication Date) – HarperFestival (Publisher)
- Bond, Felicia (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 36 Pages – 12/12/2006 (Publication Date) – HarperCollins (Publisher)
- Colandro, Lucille (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 11/01/2012 (Publication Date) – Scholastic Inc. (Publisher)
- The Night Before Valentine’s Day
- Wing, Natasha (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Get Your Free Playdough Mats Here
Think these playdough mats are a must-have for your preschool Valentines theme? Of course they are! Grab your copy below and then keep reading for even more Valentine’s Day themed playdough mats that are completely free.
Printable Playdough Mats for Free
Everyone loves variety, so try out these other playdough mats for Valentine’s Day, too!
- Chocolate Box Playdough Mats
- Heart Cookie Playdough Mats
- Conversation Heart Number Playdough Mats
- Ten Frame Counting Playdough Mats
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m 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 a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of 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.