Free Preschool Alphabet Tracing Play Dough Mats: Food Themed

Are you teaching the alphabet to a preschooler? There are many engaging and hands-on alphabet activities to provide letter practice to young children.

One way is to assemble and form letters with a variety of materials. These free alphabet tracing playdough mats are just the thing to get kids working on their letters. Get your copy today and see how many ways you can use these for letter practice!

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Learning About the ALPHABET:

LETTER PRACTICE WITH preschoolers

USING LETTER FORMATION ACTIVITIES LEADS TO EARLY LITERACY LEARNING SUCH AS:

Letter sounds.

Beginning sounds.

Blending and spelling.

These free alphabet play dough mats include a fun food theme, with a different food for each letter. A simple sentence goes along with each page for additional language practice.

Each page of the play dough mats contain:

Uppercase alphabet tracing
Steps for letter formation
ABC strip at the top
A simple sentence for early readers
A fun picture

What Can Preschoolers Learn Through Letter Practice?

LEARNING AND WRITING LETTERS with preschoolers

STUDENTS GAIN VALUABLE SKILLS WRITING AND FORMING LETTERS:

Tracing each letter with their finger or a writing utensil gets students ready for writing letters from memory.
Forming letters with play dough strengthens fine motor skills.
Students learn letter sounds, allowing them to recognize initial sounds in words.
Students will see patterns in how letters go together to form words.

E is for Eggplant food themed letter tracing mats.

Why Is It Important For Kids To Practice With Individual Letters?

Play dough is a fun and popular classroom material for preschoolers and young children. There is a reason that parents and teachers like to incorporate play dough into learning activities.

Benefits of play dough for preschoolers:

Supports fine motor skill development
Improves social skills when done with peers
Strengthens hand-eye coordination
Allows children to be creative

Hand-Eye Coordination

Kids need to carefully shape the play dough to match the letter.

Works on Spelling Practice

Working with individual letters and their sounds, students will begin to see how they can put these letters together to make words.

Provides a Novel Experience

Changing up your learning activities keeps kids interested and engaged.

Boosts Confidence

Kids who struggle using writing utensils can be successful making their letters with play dough.

Strengthens Fine Motor Skills

Children’s little fingers are hard at work shaping and molding the play dough into just the right shape.

Tools you’ll need

Don’t worry about making a special trip to the store. You can get all the supplies for this activity right here. Click the pictures above to get what you need.
Note: The clear baseplates are included in the set above, even though they are hard to see in the picture.

How To Use The Alphabet Play Dough Cards

Alphabet letter activities for preschool

All you need to do is print the alphabet tracing printables onto white card stock for durability and laminate.

These alphabet play dough mats, free printables are so versatile and fun for kids and can be used as a beginning sound activity, penmanship practice, pre-spelling activity and more!

Provide dry erase markers for tracing practice. The alphabet tracing worksheets with arrows is specifically designed to support the teacher in showing the student the correct way to form their letters.

Using their dry erase marker (or finger!) follow the steps indicated by the arrows for each letter. Once students are confident in their letter formation, they can use the tracing mat as a guide to produce their own letters independently.

Children will use play dough to roll, shape and mold each letter to fit the outline on the play dough mat.

You can also provide loose parts for this activity! Loose parts are often found in early childhood settings and consist of items like themed-mini erasers, glass stones, and beads. Use loose parts to fill up the letter outline. Preschool alphabet printables that have these large outlines are the perfect size for a variety of loose parts.

Alphabet tracing mats for kids with a food theme.

Other Ways To Use the Food Themed Letter Tracing Mats:

Practice Vowels & Consonants

Sort the pages into vowel letters and consonant letters for an additional alphabet activity for your preschooler.

Scavenger Hunt

Find something that starts with the beginning letter on each mat. Have kids place their objects on the mats.

ABC Guessing Game

Using a blank piece of paper, cover the picture, leaving just the ABC strip across the top. What letter will they be working on? What food do they think it will be?