These monster play dough math mats will fit right in with your Halloween activities. I like this fuzzy, non-scary, kid-friendly monster — so cute!

To make the mats, print them out and either laminate them or slip them into page protectors. I always use page protectors and bind them together with metal binder rings so the kids can flip through them as they use them.

Each mat says, “Feed the monster [#] things.” As I was making these mats, I was wondering… what do monsters eat? I suppose they eat cookies, probably candy, too. I would probably tell my class to make little cookies or candy to feed the monster. Or, I could tell the children to use their imaginations to think of what monsters might eat. I’m sure some kids would get pretty gross, but at the same time, it would be a high-interest game because they are so interested in all things gross. That’s why I left this mat open-ended and just wrote “feed the monster __ things” so you or your students can decide what to feed it.

So, if the mat says “Feed the monster 3 things,” you would have children break off a small piece of play dough, form it into whatever “food”, and put 3 of them in the monster’s mouth (or just place it somewhere on the mat if there are too many to fit).

The “toddler” mat just says “Feed the monster”. This mat can be used with younger children who need fine motor practice with play dough, but are not yet counting. Also, if you want to teach numbers 11-20, you can print this mat several times and write the numbers 11-20 on it. Sometimes a teacher will ask me to make a mat with a changeable number so they only have to print one mat. You can do that with this mat and make little number cards to go with it.