K Needs Play!

How did K Needs Play start?

Our founder, Mollie Auerbach, is an elementary educator and the mom of a rising kindergartener. When she toured her daughter’s future elementary school, Mollie noticed that the kindergarten classrooms were missing play kitchens, blocks, and easels. When she asked, the teachers explained students only played indoors during rainy days at indoor recess. As she further looked into the issue, Mollie discovered that districtwide, almost every school in CMS had removed play-based materials over the years due to other curricular demands. Knowing how important play-based learning is for developmentally appropriate instruction, social skills, language skills, and mental health, Mollie teamed up with other parents and educators from the community to make a change.

What is the research behind play-based learning?

Research from child development, neuroscience, and education consistently shows that play-based learning helps children develop the skills most closely linked to long-term academic success. Through play, children strengthen executive function skills such as self-control, attention, working memory, and problem-solving while also building language, literacy, social-emotional skills, and resilience. Studies have found that guided play—where teachers intentionally connect learning goals to child-led exploration—can be as effective as or more effective than direct instruction for young children. Major organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children support play-based learning because it promotes cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development while increasing engagement and reducing stress. Rather than replacing academics, high-quality play-based learning provides a research-backed way to help children learn academic content while developing the foundational skills needed for success in school and life.

What’s the difference between what you’re asking for and recess?

Recess is unstructured, child-directed downtime meant for socialization, free play, and physical release. In contrast, play-based learning is an intentional, teacher-guided educational approach where play is used as a tool to teach specific academic and developmental skills.

Why does it cost money to let kids play?

To be clear, this isn’t just “play” – it’s setting up play as a learning opportunity, which is a joyful and research-backed approach to educating young children.

Investing in kindergarten play-based learning materials is a direct investment in standards-aligned instructional tools that build foundational academic and social capacities. Rather than purchasing mere toys, funding high-quality, commercial-grade items like unit blocks, dramatic play props, and STEM kits directly supports state standards in mathematics, literacy, and scientific reasoning through concrete, hands-on application. Furthermore, these open-ended materials act as critical interventions for developing executive function, emotional self-regulation, and collaborative problem-solving, which significantly reduces classroom behavioral issues. By choosing durable, institutional-grade resources over cheap retail alternatives, the school secures a much lower long-term cost-per-use while actively fostering a research-backed environment where academic success and social-emotional growth happen simultaneously.

How were schools selected?

Our leadership team reached out to every elementary school in CMS (104 schools!) to determine which schools were already doing play and which schools might be interested in being part of a trial program in fall of 2026, assuming district permission. Eight principals responded that they would be eager to include play-based learning in their schedule if they were granted permission to do so by CMS leaders. Since beginning discussions, another school also applied to join the list.

Where does my money go?

Each dollar will go to support a local elementary school’s kindergarten classrooms to buy furniture and tools for play-based learning in fall of 2026, and to pay teachers for their time over the summer. While we were hopeful the district might have access to used furniture from years past, that is not the case, and so everything must be purchased. The most significant costs per classroom are solid wood blocks, a block shelf, a solid wood play kitchen, a high quality sand and water table, and an art easel for every classroom. Additionally, classrooms will receive tools like magnetic tiles for building, construction paper and paint, pots and pans for their play kitchen, puppets and a puppet stand, and other items to make play-based learning as effective as possible. Our team worked with the district to find the most affordable pieces (while maintaining high quality) to stretch our donors’ dollars as far as they can go. We will also be paying each teacher $100 a day to attend summer training. Our priority is funding the four Title 1 schools who have applied to be part of play based learning next year.

What happens after this year?

The district hopes to scale play-based learning across the district in 2027 and beyond. Because CMS is such a large district, this will be a big project and we’ll need our advocates’ support to make sure we can help get play-based learning to every kindergarten student in CMS. Stay tuned!

Why not provide play-based learning to 1st and 2nd grade students?

While we agree that 1st and 2nd grade students would also benefit from a daily play-based choice time, we wanted to start with a more straightforward solution. Cabarrus County, our next door neighbor, recently adopted play-based learning in every kindergarten classroom, but they have not done so in the older grades. We used Cabarrus as our model and wanted to start with an easier win (and still a huge undertaking). We will continue to work with the district to advocate for developmentally appropriate instruction for every child.

Is there a nonprofit to whom I can donate to this cause for a tax-exempt purchase?

We are currently in talks with the CMS Foundation to offer pass-through donations straight from their foundation to CMS to order the items. Nothing has been confirmed so please stay tuned.