Learn How to Count with Apple Playdough Mats

Everyone knows “A is for apple,” but did you also know October is National Apple Month? We are kicking off the month with these simple Apple Playdough Mats. This is such a fun way to apply a hands-on activity when learning numbers. The best part? Simple prep and clean up for parents!

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Why Use Playdough When Learning Numbers?

There are so many benefits to using a hands-on activity when teaching kids. The main benefit I can see myself when teaching our daughter is her retention grows ten-fold. While she loves learning and asks tons of questions each day, she is also four and loves to play. When I bring learning and playing together, she focuses on the subject longer and seems to retain the information better. There is something to be said for how much more engaged we become when the activity is fun rather than something that feels like work.

There is another benefit in using playdough for learning activities. Working with playdough helps strengthen the muscles in your children’s hands. Before your child can even begin to learn to write anything, they need to do things to help strengthen the little muscles in their hands. Playdough is a great tool to use to help develop their fine motor skills. Combining a fine motor skill with an educational lesson is like doing bicep curls and squats in the same move. It is a much more efficient way of learning. You can effectively work their muscles and brain in one single move rather than trying to work on one at a time.

How to Use the Apple Playdough Mats

***DISCLAIMER: Parental supervision is required with all projects. I hope you enjoy the quality time creating memories together!***

The best part about these mats, for parents, is that they are very simple to prep and clean. Simply download the free printable below and print. Although it is not necessary, I recommend making these reusable. I like to laminate worksheets our daughter will be using over and over again, this way she can use a dry erase marker on them and we do not have to print so much. When your child is done playing with them, quickly clean with a wet wipe and they are ready for the next time.

No laminator? No problem! I love these dry erase pockets; they are a affordable and perfect for multi-use. We use them when I do not think we will use the worksheet more than a handful of times, or I just didn’t have the time to laminate yet. They are easy to use and quickly wipe clean. I did use the regular page protectors and had them all in a three-ring binder. They worked well; however, I didn’t love that they easily became crinkled when my daughter was using them. The dry erase pockets are a sturdy plastic and do not crunch or crinkle at all. If you have a little one practicing pen control, writing, or just likes worksheets and writing, I highly recommend the dry erase pockets.

Now that your paper is protected, it is time to crack open the playdough! Let your child manipulate the playdough into the number on the apple. Once they have the number on the mat, let them add the correct number of seeds onto the apple. It is a very simple exercise, but adding in the fine motor skill adds many benefits beyond counting.

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Other Fun Apple Activities

Since it is National Apple Month, we will be doing fun activities involving apples all month. Be sure to check them all out here or on our social media pages. Do you have a favorite activity involving apples? Share it on our Facebook page!

Happy Learning!