At Universal Wisdom School, ask a young learner, “What did you learn today?” and you may well hear: “Nothing… we played!”
For us, that answer is not a contradiction. Playing is the most powerful form of learning.
Sorting objects, building towers, pretending to run a café, retelling a story or solving a disagreement during a game can all develop skills children later use in academic learning.
That is why play-based learning is such an important part of high-quality early childhood education.
At Universal Wisdom School, the early-years programme is built around this understanding: young children learn deeply when they are given opportunities to explore, interact, experiment and make sense of ideas for themselves.
Let us understand what exactly children are learning through play, and how does that prepare them for school later.
Play based learning does not mean giving some toys to your child and leaving them alone.
It sits on a spectrum and play can be led either completely by the child, or an adult can introduce some materials, ask questions, or gently expand upon an idea without taking over.
For example, a child building with blocks may be playing freely.A teacher might then ask:
The play remains enjoyable and child-led, but the adult helps bring attention to ideas such as comparison, measurement, balance and problem-solving.
Research on guided play shows strong advantages of play based learning over direct instruction for some outcomes, including early mathematics, shape knowledge and task-switching.
In simple terms
Good early childhood education can use all three, depending on which is useful in what situation.
Young children at play are learning several things at once.
When a four-year-old plays a shopkeeper, for instance, they may be:
That is why the importance of play in early childhood cannot be separated neatly into “academic” and “non-academic” learning.
UNICEF describes play as one of the most important ways young children gain knowledge and skills, and identifies play, exploration and hands-on learning as important elements of an effective pre-primary programme.
| Play experience | What may be developing |
|---|---|
| Building with blocks | spatial reasoning, balance, early maths, persistence |
| Pretend shop or café | vocabulary, counting, social interaction, sequencing |
| Puzzles | visual reasoning, problem-solving, concentration |
| Sand and water play | volume, comparison, cause and effect |
| Storytelling and role play | language, memory, imagination, perspective-taking |
| Outdoor games | coordination, self-regulation, rule-following |
| Sorting objects | classification, pattern recognition, early mathematical thinking |
It is important to remember, however, that not every play session needs to be converted into a secret opportunity for learning. Trust the play to naturally impart the skills which children will take forward with them into more formal learning.
Early literacy can begin long before formal reading. Let’s take the example of a game all children love to play: running a pretend restaurant.
In this pretend play activity, someone makes a menu.
Someone places an order.
Someone has to remember what was requested.
Someone tells another child, “You can sit here.”
So, this one activity may actually involve the development of the following skills:
Songs, rhymes and stories can also support children’s awareness of sounds and language patterns.
Children meet mathematics early when they encounter objects in real life, rather than numbers on a sheet. Their first interactions with mathematics can look like:
The Education Endowment Foundation’s review of play-based approaches reports positive effects on cognitive learning, including language, literacy and numeracy.
Traditional and play based learning need not necessarily compete with each other. Both have their own place in education. Young children sometimes need instructional teaching, and at other times, they need a room to explore. The key difference in the two ways of learning is who is doing the majority of the thinking: the teacher or the child?
| Play based learning | More traditional instruction |
|---|---|
| Child explores an idea | Adult usually explains the idea |
| Often hands-on | Often verbal or paper-based |
| May allow several possible solutions | Often works towards a specific answer |
| Teacher observes and guides | Teacher directs more of the process |
| Learning may emerge through exploration | Learning goal is usually made explicit first |
A strong early years classroom combines the two in a creative way. Here are some examples:
The balance is essential because highly structured early childhood environments can leave too little time for exploration, creativity and social-emotional learning. UNICEF has strongly advised against this kind of premature “schoolification” of the early years.
At UWS, the early-years approach is intentionally designed around how young children learn. UWS is an authorised IB World School offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP), and our early-years approach is built around exploration, interaction and play. The IB philosophy places inquiry, agency and active learning at the centre of a child’s experience, while the early-years stage of the Cambridge Pathway similarly emphasises age-appropriate, play-based and child-centred learning for children aged 3 to 6.
That philosophy is supported by the environment itself. Young learners have access to dedicated experiential spaces, activity areas and opportunities for movement, storytelling, music, collaborative work and hands-on exploration.
The aim is to give children the materials, spaces and experiences worth thinking about.
UWS’s Multiple Intelligence Tree, inspired by Howard Gardner, also reflects the school’s recognition that children engage with learning in different ways- through language, movement, music, logic, spatial thinking, nature, relationships and self-awareness.
Play makes room for these different routes.
Parents might incorrectly think that play-based learning requires less teaching and attention.
Or should I stay out of the way because the children are already deeply engaged?
For example, if two children are trying to build a bridge and it keeps collapsing, a teacher could rebuild it for them.
Or they could ask: “What do you notice about where it keeps falling?”
That question preserves the children’s ownership while helping them look more closely.
This kind of adult-supported play is often called guided play. Research suggests it can be especially useful when teachers have a clear learning goal but allow children meaningful choice and exploration.
A key skill children need to learn as a measure of academic readiness is their ability to sit down for considerable periods of time and actually engage meaningfully with learning.
Play based learning can help children develop some of these key skills for academic readiness like:
Play gives children repeated opportunities to practise these behaviours in situations that matter to them. UNICEF notes that play supports cognitive, physical, social and emotional development and gives children opportunities to plan, strategise, cooperate and understand how people and objects behave.
This is one reason preschool learning cannot be judged only by the amount of written work a child brings home.
Parents comparing a nursery school in Pune or considering the best preschool in Pune for their child may find the phrase “play-based” mentioned on many websites. However, it is useful when visiting schools for tours, to understand, what does good play-based learning actually look like?
Look for these signs:
A red flag!
A classroom full of colourful toys is not automatically a play-based learning environment.
The quality lies in how children use the space and how adults support the thinking happening within it.
You do not need specialist toys or elaborate child development activities.
Everyday life contains plenty of possibilities.
Builds: language, early maths, categorisation and imaginative play.
Do not give them the final design.
Ask:
Builds: planning, creativity, spatial thinking and problem-solving.
Count spoonfuls. Compare quantities. Notice what changes when ingredients are mixed.
Builds: sequencing, measurement, vocabulary and attention.
Start a story and stop halfway:
Builds: imagination, language, sequencing and confidence.
When something falls, spills or fails, resist immediately fixing it.
Ask:
If you ask your child “What did you learn?”, you may get: “Nothing.”
Those questions often reveal far more about a child’s learning than asking for the lesson objective.
Yes, but not because every game needs to produce an academic outcome. Its deeper value is that children are learning how to learn.
They practise noticing, questioning, remembering, communicating, persisting, creating, cooperating, solving problems, and making sense of the world around them. These are very foundations that formal academic learning later builds upon.
At Universal Wisdom School Pune, the early-years programme is built around this understanding: play, exploration and interaction are not breaks from learning.
For young children, they are actually where learning begins.
Play-based learning uses playful experiences to help children explore ideas and develop skills. It can range from free play led entirely by the child to guided play in which a teacher introduces materials, vocabulary or questions while allowing the child meaningful choice. It is especially common in early childhood education, where young children learn effectively through movement, interaction, imagination and hands-on exploration.
Research suggests that play-based and guided-play approaches can support areas including early language, literacy, mathematics, spatial knowledge and cognitive skills. A systematic review found guided play performed better than direct instruction for some early maths and shape-learning outcomes, although results varied across areas.
The strongest case for play is broader: it can support both early academic concepts and the attention, communication, self-regulation and problem-solving children need for later learning.
Play begins naturally from infancy and remains particularly important throughout the early years. In formal preschool learning and kindergarten education, play can be combined with intentional teacher guidance as children’s language, social skills and thinking become more sophisticated.
At UWS, the play-based Pre-Primary programme is designed for children aged 3 to 6.
Traditional classroom teaching is usually more adult-directed: the teacher explains, demonstrates or sets a defined task.
In play-based learning, children have greater scope to explore, make choices and test ideas. Teachers still play an important role, but often through observation, questioning and carefully timed guidance.
Effective early-years education can use both approaches depending on the skill being taught.
Schools may use role play, construction, storytelling, music, movement, sensory exploration, games, puzzles, outdoor activities and guided investigations.
The important element is not the activity alone. Teachers need to understand what children are doing, notice emerging learning and decide whether to extend the experience or allow the child to continue independently.
At Universal Wisdom School Balewadi, the Pre-Primary curriculum is explicitly play-based and child-centred and encourages children to learn through exploration, interaction and experimentation.