Play-Based Learning Archives - Toybank | NGO Facilitating Children's Play in India

Tag: Play-Based Learning

April 16, 2025

Cooking Up Skills Through Play With Little Chefs

It all began with a simple craving — a craving for pizza. But this time, it wasn’t just about eating it. It was about making it. Together.

The idea sparked during playtime, as the children chatted about their favourite foods, and just like that, they decided to make their own pizza and the game was on.

What followed was no ordinary kitchen activity — it was an adventure led entirely by the children, powered by imagination, curiosity, and joy. First, they huddled together to list all the ingredients they would need. Tomatoes, cheese, onions, bell peppers… the list grew longer with every excited suggestion.

Then came the expedition. With shopping lists and bags in hand, the little team set off to the vegetable market, the dairy, and even a nearby supermarket. They asked questions, compared prices, bargained shyly, and learned how to choose the freshest produce. The bags were heavy, but not one complaint was heard — because they carried them together.

Back home, play turned into purpose. Sleeves rolled up, hands washed, and vegetables rinsed. Some chopped while others debated the best topping combinations. It was messy, noisy, but perfect. Each child had a role, and every task was a tiny triumph — from slicing mushrooms to spreading sauce just right. They took turns, shared tools, and offered encouragement.

When the pizzas were finally ready, they gathered around like proud chefs at a grand feast. It wasn’t just about the taste — it was about the journey. The teamwork, the creativity, the hands-on problem-solving. And the play.

This wasn’t a structured lesson. There were no worksheets, no formal instructions. Yet, in that afternoon of pretend play turned into a real-life project, they learned more than any textbook could offer — how to collaborate, communicate, plan, adapt, and most of all, how to turn ordinary moments into extraordinary memories.

This activity reminded us that play is not separate from learning — it is learning.

Written with inputs from Vijay Suryavanshi, a longtime volunteer at The Opentree Foundation and a supporter of play and play-based learning.

IMPORTANCE OF PLAYPLAY2LEARNSAFE SPACE

April 14, 2025

Play, Practice, Checkmate: How Play Sessions Sparked Mansi’s Rise to State-Level Chess

Mansi (name changed) is a Class 7 student at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in Wanwada, Latur. Mansi lives with her siblings, grandparents and parents, who are farmers.

While she is average in academics, she has a keen interest in extracurricular activities. In June 2024, when we introduced play sessions in her school, she was instantly fascinated with the game of chess. She did not know how to play it and had asked other groups in class if she could join them, but they refused, as they all knew the game and had formed their groups. She was still determined to learn it. Though it seemed complex at first, with all its intricate rules and movements, Mansi started observing the other students and tried understanding the game. She learned the basics by merely observing her peers.

One day, Mansi gathered the courage to ask her teacher, Jyoti, if she would play a game of chess with her. Jyoti, who has attended multiple workshops organised by The Opentree Foundation, is a Play Practitioner and often encourages children to play and uses play-based learning in her teaching. When Mansi came with her request, Jyoti readily agreed. During the game, Mansi made several mistakes, but Jyoti remained patient and supportive. Instead of pointing out errors, she took the time to explain what Mansi could do differently, offering advice on strategies and tactics. When her classmates and others overlooked her attempts, it was Jyoti who encouraged Mansi to keep practicing, providing consistent guidance and motivation. Mansi had found a reliable guide who pushed her to persist, experiment, and improve.

Following Jyoti’s guidance, Mansi began playing chess more frequently with her classmates and also her brother at home. What had started as a challenge soon became a passion for her. She began participating in class chess competitions. At first, she lost a few games, but did not let it discourage her. Each defeat taught her something new, and her chess skills and strategies gradually improved. Mansi’s perseverance eventually paid off when she won a chess competition in her class. This achievement motivated her to compete in a school-level chess tournament in February 2025, where she secured the first rank.

This win marked a turning point for her. As a result of her dedication and practice, she was offered the opportunity to represent her school at the taluka and district levels in the same month. Once again, her hard work led to a first-place finish, which further boosted her self-confidence. Her journey took a significant turn as she went on to represent her school at the state-level. Although she did not win the state competition, she was not discouraged. Instead, she recognised the immense value of the experience and how far she had come, from knowing absolutely nothing about chess to participating in a state-level competition. Her journey is one of determination, growth, and self-discovery.

Mansi’s journey is a powerful reminder of how play can transform a child’s self-image, confidence, and future. Through something as simple yet profound as a game of chess, Mansi discovered her strengths, learned to persevere, and developed a love for learning beyond the classroom. Play not only gave her a voice and a platform but also helped her connect with a supportive adult who believed in her potential. This is exactly the kind of impact The Opentree Foundation strives to create — ensuring that every child has the right, space, and encouragement to play. Through play-based learning and the dedication of Play Practitioners like Jyoti, TOF is helping children unlock their hidden talents, build essential life skills, and thrive in every aspect of their growth.

IMPORTANCE OF PLAYPLAY2LEARNSAFE SPACE

January 30, 2025

Art, Imagination, and Play: A Vibrant Day at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2025

“It was inspiring to see how freely they translated their thoughts into art, reminding me that imagination has no limits when given the right space to grow.”

– Grade 11 ABWA CAS volunteer

On January 29, 2025, we partnered with Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA), to co-create a vibrant and inclusive play session at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. The collaboration brought together over 60 enthusiastic students from ABWA and 41 of children from The Opentree Foundation’s play centres, who celebrated the power of play, creativity, and connection. This wasn’t just an event — it was a reminder of how play can break down social barriers and empower every child to express themselves freely.

A Canvas of Creativity and Connection

The session was a colourful fusion of artistic exploration and joyful interaction. Children immersed themselves in:

T-shirt and bag stencil painting – Letting their imaginations run wild, children designed unique pieces that reflected their inner worlds.
Loose parts play – Using everyday materials like U-pins, paper cups, and clay, the children created their own ‘imaginary friends’ —characters born entirely out of creativity and personal interpretation.

These hands-on activities encouraged self-expression, problem-solving, and collaboration. Children weren’t just making art — they were communicating ideas, forming bonds, and stepping into each other’s imaginative universes.

Play Beyond the Classroom

This session stood as a powerful testament to how unstructured play fosters critical life skills like creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and teamwork. Through shared experiences, children learned not only about themselves but about each other—celebrating differences, building confidence, and finding common ground through joyful engagement.

“Through this activity, I learned the importance of self-expression and creativity in a child’s development,” a Grade 11 ABWA CAS volunteer said. “It was inspiring to see how freely they translated their thoughts into art, reminding me that imagination has no limits when given the right space to grow.”

For the students of ABWA, it was a day of reflection and inspiration. For children from our play centres, it was a moment of recognition and freedom. And for us, it was yet another affirmation of the transformative power of play.

EVENTSIMPORTANCE OF PLAY

December 14, 2024

Child Wellbeing Through Play: Insights from Our Play Seminar

On December 14, 2025, The Opentree Foundation (TOF) hosted a Play Seminar – Child Wellbeing Through Play at the Armaity Desai Hall at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. It was attended by over 100 engaging, enthusiastic play supporters from diverse spaces of academia, education, urban design, psychology, philanthropy and the social sector. It was heartening to see an auditorium and a courtyard bustling with participants throughout the day, showing a shared commitment and passion for play and play advocacy.

The keynote speakers for the event were Farida Lambay, Co-Founder, Pratham Education Foundation, and Anmol Sagar, IAS, CEO of Latur District, where TOF’s play programmes impact over 10,000 children across 50+ schools.

Lambay spoke at length about the various socio-economic barriers that limit children’s access to play, highlighting that even with the inclusion of Play in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, there remain considerable gaps in the implementation of play-centric teaching methods and the integration of play into learning spaces. Sagar, who has witnessed the impact of TOF’s programmes in Latur, spoke about play as a key tool for helping children develop positive attitudes towards school and learning, and urged organisations like TOF, and experts to come forth and collaborate with the government on more scalable, low-cost models of play-centric learning.

A Play-centric Space

Play is ubiquitous – we are surrounded by Play, and yet, we often fail to notice it. At this seminar, along with fostering dialogue and collective action on play, one of our goals was to create as many opportunities as possible for everyone to observe, recognise, and reflect on the presence of play all around.

The essence of Play and playfulness was a key element of the experience design of the seminar. Our team created a series of interactive ‘play nooks’, that gave participants a chance to relive their own play memories, to understand some of the games used as part of project Toybank’s Conscious Play® approach, and invited them to reflect and collectively brainstorm solutions to these big questions: How can play become a part of learning environments? What can be done to make play accessible and equitable for children from underserved communities?

At these exhibits, participants also had a chance to understand the impact of TOF’s life skills play programme, which was also the focus of a session on Assessing through Play.

Panel Discussion - The Child and Play: Current Realities & Way Forward

The lack of equitable access to play is a complex problem, one that is deeply enmeshed with other socio-economic-cultural factors, and needs to be addressed through an ecosystem of mindset change, policy reform, capacity building and resource allocation. It is important that the child’s Right to Play is examined in the context of all these factors, along with defining the roles of various stakeholders in realising it.

These diverse perspectives on play came together in the form of a panel discussion titled ‘The Child and Play: Current Realities & Way Forward’ at the seminar, chaired by Ingrid Srinath, Founder-Director of Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy. The panelists were:

Prof. (Dr.) Shubhada Maitra, former dean of the School of Social Work, TISS and an expert on children’s welfare, mental health, gender and play
Ms. Samriti Makkar Midha – a clinical psychologist and expert on play therapy, child protection, diversity and inclusion
Mr. Luis Miranda, chairman of the Indian School of Public Policy

The panelists navigated questions on where play can find a place in children’s well-being and cognitive development, the need to reimagine ecosystems through play-centric design and approaches, the role that socio-economic adversity, gender, geography play in enabling or restricting access to play.

Play in Practice: Parallel Sessions

One of the highlights of the seminar were the sessions led by play practitioners – experts who use play as a tool for change in their own practices and contexts. The first session, ‘Beyond Toys: Beyond Toys: Creating a Culture of Playfulness for Families and Communities, was conducted by Dr. Krishna Kulkarni, a play researcher who uses playful practices to advise parents on fostering safe, joyful interactions and spaces with children. In Urban Spaces for Play, Sarfaraz Momin, the Co-Founder of StudioPOD spoke at length about how play can consciously be integrated into the design of spaces, and how play-centric design fosters wellbeing, cognitive development, and creates more equitable access for play.

The third session, How Play Makes Sense: Integrating Play in Schools & Communities and its Impact on Children was conducted by Rahul Aggarwal and Kuldeep Kannoujiya from Swatantra Talim, a Lucknow-based organisation that works to build children’s skills and agency through play-centric activities and environments. This session wove elements of free play, puppetry to give participants an immersive experience. These sessions inspired participants with ideas on how to integrate play into their own context, to address children’s needs and overcome barriers to play.

Workshop: Rediscovering Play

Facilitated by the The Opentree Foundation’s team, this 45-minute workshop was a space for participants to revisit play in their childhood, reflect on the paucity of play as we become adults, and to immerse themselves in a state of playfulness where they used their imagination to bring abstract objects to life. The workshop brought out rich reflections – from the role of stress in our fast paced lives, to the lack of non-judgemental, safe spaces where one can be playful, to the need for being open to newer, less structured ways of thinking and finding solutions.

Launch: Play is Everywhere

With all the participants in a playful state of mind, TOF announced the launch of Play is Everywhere, a crowdsourced digital archive that will inspire all of us to be more aware of play round us, to think more critically about what enables or deters access to play and the intermingling of culture with play. You can follow us here.

Assessing Play through Play

In the two decades of our work at The Opentree Foundation, a question that we have tried to address is: How do you measure Play? Play is not linear; its impact of play is largely visible through observation or interaction with children, and the outcome varies from child to child. Over the years we have conducted assessments, observations and case studies that document the impact of play on skills, socio-emotional development, school attendance and learning outcomes; and yet, there remains a large gap in terms of a shared body of knowledge, or even shared evidence on measuring the impact of play in the Indian context.

As our programmes have evolved, we also have steadily worked on bridging this gap in terms of resources and research on assessments for play in India. At the play seminar, Shweta Chari, CEO and Co-Founder, The Opentree Foundation, presented this journey of evolution of impact measurement for play, along with Vijaya Balaji, founder, Social Lens, which is our partner for data analysis and impact measurement.

In their session, Shweta and Vijaya reflected on the lack of structured tools and methods to measure the impact of play, beyond traditional surveys and questionnaires, and introduced TOF’s play-based assessment of life skills, which will be the first every framework of its kind in India that uses play to measure play.

Call for Collective Action

The seminar concluded with a call to action, for participants to come forward and sign up for a Play Collective, which will bring together a group of driven play advocates who will leverage their individual strengths, influence, resources and expertise to initiate collective action for mainstreaming play in schools, communities and public spaces in India. Through this Play Collective, The Opentree Foundation will spearhead play-centric research, innovation and policy change, paving the path for realising the Right to Play for every child in India.

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