Based in Play: How Children Learn Best

Journey Into Inspiring Play-Based Learning Classrooms

Visit educators working in neighborhood schools in cities throughout Connecticut. You’ll see learning that is truly active, engaged, social, meaningful, iterative, and joyful. In every setting, children meet and exceed expectations when classrooms embrace play-based learning.

After attending professional development workshop, Seedlings Workshop Director Judy Cuthbertson saw how often educators and district leaders asked what play-based learning is and why it works. The film Based in Play was created to answer that question with real classrooms, real teachers, and real students. When curriculum and pedagogy align with the way children’s brains work, learning make sense to students. Play opens the door to academic mastery and to life skills.

Watch the Film

More about Play-Based Learning

Play-Based Learning Is...

  • An Immersive Approach

    Play-based learning is an immersive approach to education that allows students to actively engage in learning that is deeply meaningful and relevant to them.

  • Proven to Work Better

    Research has long-proven that play-based learning works better than direct instruction because it meets children at their developmental level.

  • Learning that Sticks

    Students learn the same curriculum, but play allows them to apply and practice what they are learning in a way that helps them transfer knowledge and skills from year to year and into adulthood.

Six Core Principles...

  • Active

    Play-based learning immerses students in the curriculum through a hands-on, minds-on approach, which mirrors how children learn best. Children's brains cannot gather, retain, and understand material that is solely told to them; they need to actively engage with it.

  • Engaged

    In order for knowledge and skills to stick, children need to be actively paying attention and participating in the learning process. When learning feels boring and unrelatable, students disengage from school.

  • Meaningful

    Children need context to learn. When content feels relevant to their lives and cultures, learning makes sense and so it sticks. Learning that’s meaningful is learning that lasts.

  • Social

    Children learn best by interacting with others. From parallel play in early childhood to collaboration in later years, social interactions make learning more enjoyable, memorable, and effective.

  • Iterative

    Effective learning begins with what a child already understands and then builds new knowledge and skills on that foundation, one step at a time. Skipping steps and not meeting children where the are at leads to frustration, not progress.

  • Joyful

    Joyful classrooms support emotional and physical well being, in addition to academics. When children’s needs are being met, they are more likely to feel good and be ready and interested in learning.

Free Play vs. Play-Based Learning

Unlike recess or unstructured free play, play-based learning is intentionally planned, hands-on, and research-backed.

  • Play-Based Learning:  Student driven, teacher-guided with clear educational goals and objectives
  • Free Play:  Child-directed without academic goals or anticipated outcomes
  • Direct Instruction:  Teacher-centered information delivery
Learn more about play-based learning at playingislearning.org

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