It’s really lots of fun to prepare hands-on math activities for toddlers through early elementary. Since playdough is so popular with young children (and great for fine-motor coordination), I’ve been designing some playdough math activities for each season. First, my daughter, Christina, and I created some free playdough printables for fall. Then we created free playdough printables for winter. Now we have free playdough printables for spring. Update: We also have free playdough printables for summer!
Today, I have some Montessori-inspired playdough math activities for you using the spring math printables.
Free Spring Playdough Math Pack (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
You’ll find the free spring playdough math pack in yesterday’s Montessori Monday post. It has printables for activities related to seasons, fine-motor skills, counting, DIY cards and counters, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than, and less than. Go here to download the free pack.
Montessori-Inspired Playdough Math Activities for Spring
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Here are some examples of activities you could have on spring playdough trays.
Montessori-Inspired Worm Playdough Math Tray
Montessori-Inspired Worm Playdough Math Tray
Materials used:
- Montessori Services large plastic tray
- White playdough from my winter playdough math tray and phases-of-the-moon playdough tray with added pink food coloring (See recipe in my “How to Prepare a Simple Fall Playdough Tray” post.)
- Container for playdough (mine is from the Dollar Tree)
- Spring photo playdough mats, printed and laminated
- Numbers and counters cards, printed and laminated
- Number and number symbol squares, printed and laminated
- Small containers to organize pieces
- Sponge for cleaning surfaces after using playdough
Notice that I didn’t make new playdough for this. The playdough from this recipe lasts for a long time, so my winter playdough was still nice and soft. I just added food coloring to make it pink!
This tray was designed for a homeschool or classroom with multiple ages. Younger children would generally create playdough worms to make a picture or to make the worms for one number. Older children could use the playdough worms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than, or less than. If you have one child, prepare the activity to be appropriate for your child’s age and ability level.
Making Worms Using the Playdough Numbers and Counters Cards
Making 10 Worms with Playdough
This is a fun variation of Montessori cards and counters. I recommend choosing a number your child is working on. In a classroom, you could have the numbers 1-10 available and let the children choose which number they want to use.
My 3-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, wanted to make 10 worms, so she chose the 10 card. She made 10 playdough balls on the card and then rolled each ball into a worm. (Yes, Zoey spends lots of time dressed like Elsa or Anna from Frozen!)
Admiring Her Worm Playdough Math Work
Zoey was proud of her work!
Playdough Worm Addition
This is a simple hands-on addition activity. The playdough worms could be used for simple hands-on addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.
Montessori-Inspired Dandelion Playdough Math Tray
Montessori-Inspired Dandelion Playdough Math Tray
Materials used:
- Montessori Services large plastic tray
- Yellow playdough using lemon yellow food coloring (See recipe in my “How to Prepare a Simple Fall Playdough Tray” post.)
- Container for playdough (mine is from the Dollar Tree)
- Spring photo playdough mats, printed and laminated
- Numbers and counters cards, printed and laminated
- Number and number symbol squares, printed and laminated
- Small containers to organize pieces
- Sponge for cleaning surfaces after using playdough
Making Dandelions Using the Playdough Numbers and Counters Cards
Making and Counting Playdough Dandelions
For the dandelion work, Zoey made the number 6 with playdough, made 6 playdough balls, and then flattened the balls slightly on the photo to make dandelions.
Dandelion Playdough Greater Than/Less Than Activity
Playdough Dandelion Greater Than, Less Than Activity
This is a fun reinforcement for the greater than, less than symbols. If your child is confused by the greater than and less than symbols, be sure to check out my greater than, less than alligator work.
More Montessori-Inspired Playdough Activities for Spring
Montessori-Inspired Playdough Activities 101
Montessori-Inspired Spring Playdough Activities
How to Prepare a Simple Spring Playdough Tray
I hope your child or children have fun with hands-on math activities this spring! 🙂
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Make some worms? sounds positively gross! But look at Zoey, she seems to be thoroughly enjoying it! Children!
#practicalmondays
LOL! Zoey does love making worms!Kids definitely are funny that way. I’m lucky we have lots of snails near my house. Zoey is totally in love with those, too. 🙂