ABC Playdough Mats

Our ABC Playdough Mats are perfect for young children who are learning the alphabet. Creating letters with playdough allows children to feel the alphabet…literally. As they squeeze, roll, and bend the playdough to form uppercase and lowercase letters, children don’t even realize they’re gaining important pre-reading skills. They just know they’re having a blast–and combining learning with fun is always a recipe for success!

Our free download includes colorful mats for uppercase and lowercase letters along with tips for using them, so you can jump right in and get started.

Instructions for the ABC Playdough Mats

1. Prepare your letter mats. Print the A-Z letter mats contained in this activity download. Cut each sheet in half and laminate.
2. Prepare some playdough. If you don’t have playdough on hand, you can follow the simple recipe in our short instructional video, or refer to the recipe in the download file.

3. Create the alphabet. Now the fun begins! Form “ropes” by rolling the playdough on the table with your hands. Show your child how to place the ropes on the laminated mats to create the letters.

Playing with Your ABC Playdough Mats

There’s no “one right way” to use the ABC Playdough Mats. Your child might prefer to create his own variations of the letters, and that’s perfectly fine.

If your child’s first attempts aren’t perfect, that’s okay! The ultimate goal is to create an enjoyable atmosphere as your child masters the alphabet.

Older children can be encouraged to match uppercase and lowercase letters.

There are lots of ways you can use this activity with your child to reinforce his knowledge of letters and how they are formed.

Have you found other ways to use playdough to teach your child letters? Please share in the comments below.

If your child enjoyed this hands-on letter recognition activity, why don’t you try some of our other Letter Recognition activities, too?