How it was framed made the difference. I had a purpose for creating and using these materials, and I reflected on how to explain that purpose to others. What looked like free time to the principal was in reality an intentional, teacher-guided exploration toward specific learning goals. When I could articulate why children were playing and what they were working toward, it shifted how colleagues and administrators understood and valued the approach( Schmidtke 2025).
This experience is not unique. Many early childhood educators negotiate between what they know is developmentally informed, what is institutionally valued, and how decisions are discussed and made. Playful learning is an umbrella term for pedagogical approaches that incorporate children’ s natural tendency toward play to learn about the world and people around them. It is foundational to early education and supports children’ s cognitive, social, and emotional growth( Zosh et al. 2018). Yet among today’ s standardsdriven systems and accountability efforts, play’ s role is increasingly diminished, particularly beyond preschool. Playful learning is often replaced by direct instruction and constrained by standardized benchmarks and accountability measures( Parker et al. 2022). Leading frameworks and recent research consistently emphasize that play and learning are not competing priorities; they are deeply interconnected( NAEYC 2022; Little 2023; NASEM 2024; Sanchez 2025).
Guided play, a specific form of playful learning, occupies the space between unstructured free play and direct instruction. It often resembles one of two scenarios. In the first, teachers create the environment around a learning goal, but children have the freedom to follow what interests them in the setting. In the second, children direct the learning experience, and the teacher guides with intentional comments or questions that extend the children’ s interest and understanding( Weisberg et al. 2016). In both forms, guided play honors children’ s agency while advancing academic content through educator facilitation( Weisberg et al. 2016; Pyle & Danniels 2017; Zosh et al. 2018).
Guided play is not only developmentally grounded but also intellectually engaging, supports strong learning outcomes, and should be central across the prekindergarten-to-grade-3 continuum( NAEYC 2020; Zosh et al. 2022).
Guided play is also a powerful tool for advancing equity. Beginning with children’ s strengths, interests, and social and cultural contexts, educators can guide children’ s play in ways that validate their identities and experiences( Souto- Manning 2017). For example, researchers have found that multilingual learners are able to draw on their home languages and cultural knowledge as legitimate tools for learning rather than as obstacles to overcome( Souto-Manning 2017; Cekaite & Simonsson 2023). For children with disabilities, educators can use guided play to support multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression, such as offering different options for children to express their ideas( drawing, writing, movement, dictating) or using dramatic play or role play to practice targeted communication and social skills( Gauvreau et al. 2019).
I am a former classroom teacher who experienced firsthand the benefits of guided play in the early primary grades. Now, in the higher education setting, I advocate for ways to integrate researchbased strategies with practice. In this article, I explore how guided play can develop content knowledge and skills in literacy and math across pre-K to grade 3. I use examples based on and adapted from a mixed-methods research study I conducted about elementary principals’ perspectives on playful pedagogy in these grades. I highlight steps educators can take to introduce guided play and illustrate what this looks like in action, including adaptations for multilingual learners and children with disabilities.
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