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Dog & Cat Food Play Dough Mats

By Karen Cox | Affiliate Disclosure | Filed Under: Pets Theme, Play Dough Math Mats

Here are two sets of Pet play dough mats for a Pets Theme: one with dogs and one with cats. These will help children with fine motor skills as they practice counting and numeral identification.

Play dough math mats are a great way to combine fine motor skills, counting skills, and play!

Pet Play Dough Mats

Pet Play Dough Mats

To prepare the mats, print and either laminate or slip them into clear page protectors. You can put them in page protectors and hook them together with metal binder rings.

The top of each mat says “Put [#] pieces of food in the dog’s bowl.” Or, for the cat, “Put [#] pieces of food in the cat’s bowl.”

Children will identify the numeral, and count out that amount of dog or cat food pieces to put in the bowl.

Children can create the dog and cat food by rolling pieces of brown play dough into a ball. As an alternative to play dough, you can use pom poms, flat floral marbles, or other manipulatives.

I also made a mat that does not have a number, but simply says, “Put some food in the dog’s/cat’s bowl.” This mat is for toddlers who are not ready for counting yet, but need to practice fine motor skills with play dough. You can also use this mat for higher numbers, such as 11-20.

Click to Download the Pet Play Dough Mats:

Note: These mats are free printables. Just click to download!

Download: Dog Play Dough Mats

Download: Dog Toddler Mat

Download: Cat Play Dough Mats

Download: Cat Toddler Mat

More Pet Resources You’ll Love:

Pet Theme Printables

Pet Math & Literacy Printables

Get the Pet Printables here!

This set includes 20 Pet Theme math and literacy activities for small group or center time.

All activities are hands-on learning and designed especially for Pre-K and Preschool.



Originally published September 2011. Updated September 2021.

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8 Comments

About Karen Cox

Karen is the founder of PreKinders.com. She also works as a full-time Pre-K teacher in Georgia. Read more...

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. hether Driggers says

    September 25, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Hey,
    I do this for Clifford week. I buy a box of small dog bones and use those as the counters.

    We then use the large jumbo size as paint brushes and paint with them on a dog bone shape.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      September 27, 2011 at 6:14 pm

      Thanks for sharing, Hether!

      Reply
  2. Susan says

    March 30, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    I give my kids the toddler mat in a plastic sleeve and a dice. They have to count out that many “treats” that they roll. Then they write the numeral with a dry erase marker. Older/more advanced kids can add numbers together.

    Reply
  3. Karen Zilkie says

    June 1, 2013 at 10:46 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and art work. It keeps teaching fresh and exciting for me which makes my students excited also. You save me so much time by just being able to print it off instead of making my own. Love you!

    Reply
  4. brendamarie says

    October 30, 2013 at 6:50 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing! I love giving my students new and exciting ways to build skills!!!

    Reply
  5. DEBBIE says

    February 10, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    Thanks SO much! God bless you!!!

    Reply
  6. Second Chance says

    February 19, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    we shared on our facebook page–cute!

    Reply
  7. Nateka Coppock says

    March 3, 2022 at 10:07 pm

    We currently purchased a game very similar to this that I will be using in small group this week. I love the idea of the kids feeding an animal making that real life connection while learning numbers and building motor skills.

    Reply

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Welcome!

Glad you're here! You'll find hands-on learning activities, themes, and printables for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten kids. I'm Karen Cox, a Pre-K teacher in Georgia. I have taught 4-5 year olds for 20+ years! Read More…

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Join here to get weekly emails with free printables and activities for Pre-K!
We collect, use, and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!