Top o’ the morning to you! Are you ready to sham-ROCK your way into some playful learning this St. Patrick’s Day? With these St. Patrick’s Day counting playdough mats, your little leprechauns can practice counting and number formation!
Playing with playdough has been shown to have so many amazing benefits for children, so why not sneak in some math learning while their having so much fun?
PS, if you don’t have any playdough to hand, or your supplies are running low, here’s a super easy, no-cook playdough recipe that’s worth checking out.
So, gather your little leprechauns, grab your green and yellow playdough, and let the counting and creativity begin.
May your St. Patrick’s Day be filled with laughter, learning, and plenty of Irish cheer!
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When playing with these St Paddy’s counting playdough mats, your little learners will have the chance to practice and develop some early math skills such as:
- Counting skills – they’ll have to count the lucky coins carefully to ensure they are making the right amount
- Number recognition – these mats can help them to improve their number recognition as they associate the amount of coins with the written form of the number
- Number formation – shaping the dough into the correct shapes for the numbers can be a wonderful, hands-on way to reinforce number formation, especially for those not ready to write them yet
- One to one correspondence – this important skill (trickier than you may think) is the ability to only touch and count an object of a set once.
They will also have the chance to improve some non-math skills such as:
- Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination – when they are molding the playdough into coins, balls or numbers they will have to use these skills to ensure they make the correct shapes
- Hand strength and dexterity – playing with playdough can be a great way to improve these important pre-writing skills
- Pencil grip – if your child is ready to have a go at the writing part
I’ve created these St Patrick’s Day counting playdough mats for the numbers 1-10.
How To Prepare These St Patrick’s Playdough Mats
What you’ll need:
- St Patrick’s Day math playdough mats (click on the download box at the bottom of the page’)
- Playdough (if you fancy making your own with your little ones, you can find a cheap and very easy no-cook recipe here)
There’s no cutting involved here unless you want to trim around the edges of the mats.
Once you’ve downloaded them, you’ll just need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then you’ll probably want to laminate them to ensure they don’t get ruined by the dough.
After that you’re all done! Let your kids practice their math skills in a fun doughy way!
If you little ones are after more awesome St Patrick’s Day learning, you may want to check out some more awesome activities here!
