Playdough letter mat maker

Big hollow letters to fill with playdough

Print alphabet playdough mats. Each mat has one big hollow letter, as a capital and a small letter, to fill with playdough snakes. Beside it are the picture for the letter sound and a line to trace. You can also type a short word.

Words that have a picture (471): press one to add it
Pick a design

Now: . Hundreds of designs to choose from.

Choose each part yourself

To keep a copy, choose “Save as PDF” as the printer. What you type stays on your device: it is not sent to us and not saved.

Your worksheet:

How to make your worksheet

  1. Type the letters you want, choose the whole alphabet, or type your own words.
  2. Choose capital and small together, or one of them.
  3. Keep the picture and the tracing line, or turn them off.
  4. Print. Slide each mat into a plastic sleeve so the playdough peels off cleanly.

The reading skill

The mat teaches letter shapes and letter sounds together. Ask your child to say the sound, not the letter name, while rolling and pressing the playdough. Say it together the first few times.

Made from real letter shapes

The hollow letters follow the same pen strokes as our tracing pages, so the shape built in playdough is the shape your child will write.

No playdough?

Fill the letter with buttons, pom-poms, stickers, beads or small blocks. Or color it in.

Good questions

Can I make a playdough mat for a name or a word?

Yes. Choose “Type your own words” and type it. Short words work best: long ones get thinner letters so they fit across the page.

Which picture goes with each letter?

A picture from our own library that starts with the sound of the letter, such as sun for s. The letter x has no picture.

Are the mats free?

Yes. Print as many as you need for your own children or your own class.

Make another kind of sheet

Free · 2 minutes

Is reading hard for your child, and you are not sure why?

“Behind in reading” can mean ten different things, and each one needs different help. Check off what is true for your child. You will see the one thing to work on first, and what can wait.

Find where to start