Play With AI (PL-AI): A Play-Centered, Design-Based Curriculum for AI Literacy in Pre-K and Kindergarten

Synthesis: This design-based research study reports on the design, implementation, and refinement of Play With AI (PL-AI), a developmentally appropriate curriculum introducing foundational AI literacy concepts to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children. Two pre-K and two kindergarten teachers co-designed, piloted, and refined seven sequenced activities that progress from unplugged play (e.g., composing and testing "how-to" algorithms), to tangible coding (programming Bee-Bot or Ozobot), to guided dialogue with a social AI robot (Miko). Drawing on educational robotics, play-based learning, and the AI4K12 "Big Ideas" aligned with NAEYC's developmentally appropriate practice, PL-AI positions AI as a human-designed, instruction-following system rather than something autonomous or magical, embedding concepts like algorithms, data, and fairness within familiar centers, storytelling, and movement routines.

Key Findings

• Teacher co-design increased confidence and pedagogical Learner Agency — average self-ratings of comfort teaching AI topics rose across design cycles, with teachers attributing the shift to active participation in co-design and attributing curriculum ownership to collaborative activity-building (Teaching, Professional Development).
• Four interrelated design principles emerged as feasible and sustainable: embodied play as conceptual grounding, tangible coding as a procedural bridge, guided dialogue as ethical and reflective Scaffolding, and teacher co-design as a Sustainability anchor.
• Children showed formative, multidimensional learning across conceptual, procedural, and dispositional strands — they began reasoning about AI as human-designed and instruction-following, developed sequencing and debugging skills through tangible coding, and displayed persistence, curiosity, and collaboration; ethical reflection on fairness and human decision-making surfaced naturally through guided dialogue.
• Activities were refined through iteration — provisional prototypes like Data Detective and Sensor Safari were discontinued due to logistical constraints (their ideas absorbed into Scan and Draw and Color Code Stories), while spontaneous play like informal "races" was formalized into structured collaboration and debugging challenges.
• Implementation was embedded in existing classroom routines rather than treated as a stand-alone unit, with teachers mapping Bee-Bot routes onto number grids and alphabet mats and integrating AI exploration with literacy and numeracy goals.
• Findings are reported as formative design evidence, not validated outcome measures — the study was not designed to estimate effect sizes or establish causal learning gains, reflecting the epistemological commitments of design-based research.

Implications for Practice

• AI literacy can be meaningfully integrated into early childhood settings without displacing core developmental priorities by embedding concepts within familiar play-based structures like storytelling, movement, centers, and collaborative Problem Solving.
• Teacher preparation and professional development should incorporate co-design models that position educators as active contributors to curriculum development, supporting conceptual understanding and willingness to adapt instruction to local contexts.
• Curriculum developers can draw on the four design principles to create AI learning experiences that foreground human agency, ethical reflection, and collaboration rather than focusing narrowly on technical skills or tool use.
• Policy should support time, resources, and autonomy for teacher collaboration and iterative curriculum development, investing in professional learning networks to introduce AI literacy equitably beginning in the early years.

Connected Concepts

• Early Childhood Education
• AI Literacy
• Robots in Education
• Design-Based Research
• Game-Based Learning
• Embodied Learning
• Teaching

Connected Articles

• Fostering Computational Thinking Through Robotics in Kindergarten: A Systematic Review of Learning Strategies, Frameworks, and Assessment — computational thinking and robotics in kindergarten
• Design of a Science-Integrated Secondary School AI Literacy Curriculum: A Youth & AI Expert Guided Design-Based Research Approach — DBR-based AI literacy curriculum design
• Exploring Factors Influencing Preschool Teachers' Behavioral Intention to Use AI Technologies in Early Childhood Settings — preschool teachers' intention to use AI technologies
• RoboBlockly Studio: Conversational Block Programming With Embodied Robot Feedback for Computational Thinking — block-based conversational robotics for computational thinking

Citation

Play with AI (PL-AI): A play-centered, design-based curriculum for AI literacy in pre-K and kindergarten — Lee, J. (2026). Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 10, 100569.