Our family is tremendously patriotic. I mean, I grew up in a family who respected the flag, this country, its history and wore red, white, and blue on patriotic holidays but I didn’t know patriotism until I met my husband. He was in the Army at the time. He deployed shortly after we got married and the true meaning of patriotism quickly became my life. Now I do not let a Veteran pass without giving my thanks, I proudly put my hand over my heart for the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner without even thinking. Patriotism is something that we both hold dear and hope to teach our daughter the true meaning of it. So providing our daughter and her friends with patriotic activities, like these Patriotic Alphabet Play Dough Mats is perfect!
*Pair this with our Alphabet Centers and Activities for more ABC practice!
Patriotic Alphabet Play Dough Mats
We don’t need to wait until the quintessential holidays to sport red, white and blue. We can be patriotic on any day of the year and we should.
That being said, when the Fourth of July comes around, we do it big. Tons of fireworks, the colors of the flag draping over every table, chair and person in the room, and of course BBQ like you’ve never had BBQ before.
Grab these Patriotic Alphabet Play Dough Mats (at the link below) and include them in your 4th of July celebrations or any time of the year!
Who Should Use These Play Dough Mats?
These Patriotic Alphabet Play Dough Mats come in a full alphabet set, including both upper and lowercase!
They’re perfect for children from toddlers all the way through Kindergarten.
Children who are just beginning to explore the alphabet will benefit from these play dough mats as will children who are learning beginning sounds or even sight words!
The best part of these play dough mats is that they can be used any time of the year, for many holidays, and can fit into various themes!
Features
Not only are these play dough mats extremely beneficial for literacy, exploring ABCs, beginning sounds and sight words but have other development benefits as well. These mats, in combination with play dough, become a fabulous sensory activity, help strengthen fine motor skills as well as assisting with prewriting.
Each page has it’s own letter and is decorated with fun red, white and blue stars and more. The colors are bright and bold with a fun theme.
Preparing The Play Dough Mats
If you haven’t used printable play dough mats in your home or classroom before, you are in for a treat. Kids will be so excited to play with play dough, they won’t realize they are learning too!
Once these mats are prepared, they are prepared forever. This is such a low prep activity, you’ll want more and more.
The first thing I do is print out the set. Next I like to laminate each page. The purpose of this is to make sure the play dough doesn’t stick to the paper.
Money Saving Tip: If you would like to save on lamination sheets, you can laminate the pages back to back.
How To Use With Play Dough:
- The letters can be filled in completely with play dough.
- Use different colors of play dough in each letter.
- Children can create balls of play dough to make dotted lines through the letter.
- Create snakes with the play dough to ‘write’ the letters.
- Play Dough Tools are also fantastic for this activity.
Alternative Play Ideas:
These ABC Mats are not limited to only play dough. You can also use other objects to fill the letters. For instance:
- Pom Poms
- Dry Erase Markers
- Pipe Cleaners
- Gems
Benefits Of Alphabet Play Dough Mats
Some kids need extra encouragement to do learning activities and this can easily be done by adding a fun factor. Play dough alone can be a super fun activity that most children enjoy, so adding learning to this activity is perfect.
This is a fantastic set for a literacy center in a classroom or as an ABC activity at home.
More Benefits of Play Dough in the Classroom:
- Play dough is a fantastic way to strengthen fine motor skills, which helps with pre-writing skills.
- Play dough can be calming and stress relieving.
- Encourages development of hand-eye coordination.
- Excellent sensory play activity.
- Increases creativity and imagination.
- Will help with letter recognition and letter formation.
- Is a fun way to introduce beginning sounds.
Grab Your Free Set
Ready to play and learn? Grab some play dough and print your copy of the Patriotic Alphabet Play Dough Mats by clicking the large, blue button below!
Then, be sure you request your invitation to let us help you plan all year long inside the Print and Play Club!
With instant access to hundreds of printables by topic and skill (no more scouring the internet!), every TKC resource, a digital games vault, “Super” Sunday Surprises, and much more – your planning time just got easier.
Request your invitation below for more info!
- Must-Read Teacher Life Articles - January 18, 2021
- Video Lessons for Teaching with Nursery Rhymes - December 21, 2020
- Finding the Right Fit – Editable Classroom Volunteer Survey - December 16, 2020
Summer Alphabet Printables