Play-Based Learning

DRIVEN BY YOUR CHILD'S CURIOSITY

In our Early Years, we see every child as capable, curious, and full of potential. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, we believe learning begins with your child’s own questions and ideas. Our teachers listen closely, observe with care, and gently guide their discoveries toward new adventures.

The environment itself becomes part of your child’s education, a place designed to spark wonder. Indoors, your child might express themselves through painting, role play, music, or construction, discovering what Reggio calls the “hundred languages of children.” Outdoors, they may dig in the soil, study the shapes of leaves, or watch insects up close, learning that nature has endless lessons to offer.

Through these experiences, your child will see learning as something joyful, alive, and ever-unfolding.

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Play-Based Learning

Benefits of Play-Based Learning

Play is more than fun; it’s how your child builds the skills they’ll carry for life. From confidence to creativity, every playful moment helps them grow in ways that matter most.

Play-Based Learning | Dover Court International School in Singapore - Visual Time Line Tabs

Confidence & Resilience

Through play, your child learns to take safe risks, make mistakes, and try again. These everyday challenges, like balancing on a climbing frame or rebuilding a tower that tumbles down, build persistence, problem-solving skills, and self-belief that they’ll carry into every stage of learning.

Confidence & Resilience

Social & Emotional Skills

Play is how children learn to connect with others. Your child will practise sharing, turn-taking, and cooperation, whether they’re negotiating roles in a pretend shop or deciding together how to build a den. In these moments, they also begin to recognise and regulate their own emotions in a supportive environment.

Social & Emotional Skills

Creativity & Imagination

From role play to art and music, your child has countless ways to express ideas. They might turn a cardboard box into a rocket, paint the story of their weekend, or create a play with friends. These imaginative experiences strengthen creativity, storytelling, and original thinking, all vital for lifelong learning.

Creativity & Imagination

Early Literacy & Numeracy

Play lays the foundation for academic growth. Counting objects, singing songs and listening to stories all help your child develop language and number sense. By learning these skills through play, your child begins to see how words and numbers connect to the world around them.

Early Literacy & Numeracy

Physical Development

Active play supports both fine and gross motor skills. Outdoors, your child might climb, run, or balance across stepping stones. Indoors, they develop coordination and strength through painting at an easel, threading beads, or constructing with small materials, all building confidence in their own body.

Physical Development

Curiosity & Critical Thinking

Play invites your child to ask questions, test their ideas, and discover how things work. Whether experimenting with water flow in the sandpit, sorting natural objects they’ve collected, or asking “why does this happen?”, they begin to think logically and develop a love of discovery that extends well beyond Early Years.

Curiosity & Critical Thinking