Shape Play Doh Mats
I recently created these 2-d shape play doh mats for us to use when working on our shapes and wanted to share them here, too. These printable mats include a triangle, circle, square, rectangle, hexagon, diamond, and oval. The general idea is just to bring them out during some play doh play time and have your child (or students) use their play doh to create the different shapes. I added the shape words to the bottom of each mat in traceable form for an added writing extension for older kiddos.
Kade just turned two so for him, I just pulled out four of the mats to use. We focused on triangle, circle, square, and rectangle. We used fine motor skills to roll the play doh into different sized "snakes" or what he was calling "roads" (because everything has to do with trucks and cars these days). I helped Kade lay the strips of play doh on the mats and had him help me squish them down as we talked about the shape we were making. I brought out our play doh scissors which helped us practice cutting the strips to the right size for each shape.
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I laminated my mats but you could also slide them into plastic sheet covers. I recommend doing this if you are going to have your child (or students) complete the writing portion at the bottom as well so that they can write with dry erase markers and you can erase/re-use them after.
You can download these free printable shape mats by clicking the image below. :) Enjoy!
Be sure to check out these posts with more toddler activity ideas:
Activity Ideas for 12-18 Month Olds
30+ Activities for 1-2 Year Old Toddlers
Name Activities for Toddlers