Count and Smash Play Dough Math Activity

We just love play dough in this house! Play dough has been our go-to activity since Caden was a toddler! The great thing about play dough besides that it is just fun, is that it is also a great way to work on fine motor skills, get some sensory input and it can be used in many ways for hands-on learning! Count and Smash Play Dough Math Activity is this weeks #toolsforlearning post in which we practiced counting in a fun, hands-on way!

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Count and Smash Play Dough Math Activity

Supplies & Materials:

Play Dough (we used this kind, but homemade works well too!)
Play Dough Tools
Large Die

How to Prep:

To prepare this activity, you will need to gather all the play dough tools and supplies on a tray.
Then roll you play dough into small balls about one inch thick and place them in a small pail. (This is a great fine motor activity for kids to do too!)
Now the activity is ready for playful learning!

How to Play:

Kids will roll the die and count out that number of play dough balls.
Then they can choose a play dough tool to smash the balls as they count!

My five-year old son had lots of fun with this play dough activity! He tried out different tools including a rolling-pin, a knife tool and some play dough stamps. He was very observant and noticed the play dough stamps matched the dots on the die.

He particularly loves smashing the balls with this toy hammer, making what he called “nests”. He lined up all the “nests” and then we counted them.

If your kids enjoy learning with manipulatives, then you will love this new #toolsforlearning blog hop! Every week we will be sharing hands-on learning activities for kids using different manipulatives! This week we have activities using play dough tools!