Learning Through Play

Andria Englehardt

Walk into any preschool classroom and you will most likely see children engaged playing, building towers, negotiating roles in dramatic play, or experimenting with water and sand. To an outside observer, it may look like “just play.” But for educators, these moments show rich opportunities for learning across cognitive, social-emotional, and physical domains.

Yet many of us, as preschool teachers, face the challenges of balancing the developmental importance of play with the growing pressure of standards, mandated curricula, and kindergarten readiness expectations. The pressure is real: how do we remain faithful to what we know about childhood development while also meeting accountability measures?

Why Play Matters

Play is central to how children learn. Piaget (1952) described children as active constructors of knowledge through exploration, while Vygotsky (1978) emphasized the role of social interaction and scaffolding in cognitive growth. Today, research and professional organizations reaffirm these understandings. The National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, 2020) highlights play as a cornerstone of developmentally appropriate practice, reminding us that it supports problem-solving, language, collaboration, and self regulation.

Meeting Standards Through Play

The good news is that standards and play are not mutually exclusive. Learning frameworks outline what children should know and can do, but they leave very little room for flexibility in how those goals are achieved. That’s where play becomes essential!

For example:

• Block play supports math concepts like geometry, spacial reasoning, and measurement.
• Dramatic play naturally integrates literacy skills through vocabulary building and storytelling.
• Outdoor exploration encourages science learning through observation, inquiry, and cause and effect reasoning.

When educators enter play with intentional prompts or guiding questions, they connect playful experiences with authentic, joyful experiences that bridge academic expectations.

Practical Strategies

Educators can:

• Create intentional environments that invite exploration connected to leaning goals.
• Use observations as assessments by documenting evidence of standards met during play.
• Communicate with families and administrators to highlight how play based learning achieves benchmarks.
• Advocate collectively by sharing examples of how play aligns with standards to perception that play is “extra”.

Conclusion

As educators, our role is not to choose between play and standards. Instead, we weave them together with intention, creativity, and purpose. Play provides the context where curiosity meets curriculum. Children explore, problem-solve, and collaborate. They also meet important developmental and academic goals. We ground our practice in research and developmental theory. We align our work with current standards. This ensures that learning is both rigorous and joyful.

Play is not optional or an “extra.” It is the heart of early education. Play is a proven pathway to social-emotional growth, cognitive development, and lifelong learning. By embracing play as both the method and the evidence of learning, we prepare children for school. It also prepares them for life.

References:
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). Developmentally appropriate practice position statement. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap.

Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. International Universities Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.