Abstract:

Play in early childhood curriculum is considered to be in the core of the education process. Therefore, it is important to know how kindergartner perceives the concept of play. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of early childhood age children about the concept of play. The study was designed in phenomenology. The phenomenon of play was analyzed via the photographs taken by children and the interviews on these photographs. Data were analyzed with descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings, for an activity to be a play toys must be used in the activity a child must touch the toys the activity must be enjoyable and planning must be made by the children. Moreover, children expressed that teachers do not participate in the plays and they play alone at home in general. As a result, it can be said that teachers should hide the goals and objectives into the plays in the process of planning teachers and parents should not be preventive with their academic worries while children are playing and they should be more sensitive for the children’s need to play

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