Play Dough Addition

 

E still likes to work on her addition facts, so after the Preschool Addition Game with Chicks and Eggs and the Owl Addition 1-10 printable, we came up with another way of learning about them in a hands-on way: Play Dough Addition!

 

(E was 4 years and 4 months old.)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

 

Materials for Play Dough Addition:

• Play dough. {Different colors optional.}
• Number cookie cutters.
• Beads, gems or similar small manipulatives.

 

E has played with play dough a LOT over the last several weeks, so it was only natural to use it for learning activities she’s interested in.

We started with a batch of fresh homemade play dough in rainbow colors that was very inviting. Store-bought play dough works just the same, of course, and you don’t even need different colors.

E picked two numbers and cut them from the orange play dough with her cookie cutters.

 

 

We talked about the plus and equals signs, and E cut those from purple play dough. {The cookie cutter set I linked to in the materials list has those signs but if you don’t have them, just roll a few short “snakes” to make the signs. We weren’t able to find the equals cookie cutter and used the dash/minus sign instead.}

 

 

E read the equation, then placed the appropriate number of heart beads into each play dough number to find the sum.

 

 

She chose to cut the resulting number from blue play dough, then read the entire equation. {She doesn’t have that last part quite down yet but she’s getting there.}

 

 

She wanted me to pick the next two numbers, and I picked 4 and 3.

When she’d cut the 4, though, she noticed that we now had 1, 2, 3, 4 on the table.

 

 

For her, there was no question that we now had to use number 5 rather than what I had chosen 😉

She used glass gems as manipulatives this time.

 

 

 

Have you tried Play Dough Addition? What’s your favorite hands-on addition activity? Leave a comment below!

 

For kids who aren’t up for addition yet, here’s a more basic math activity using play dough:

Exploring Numbers with Play Dough.

 

 

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