Welcome to the Playful Activity Library! We invite you to explore this curated collection of active, playful activities designed for use in adult education settings. This library supports our playful learning community by showcasing inspiring practices, sparking new ideas, and encouraging collaborative connections. We welcome all forms of playful approaches—whether it’s a quick icebreaker, a creative classroom activity, or a fully developed board game. Whatever your contribution, we’d love for you to share it with the community!
The Playful Learning Tour Guide aims to establish an evidence-based framework that supports educators in creating pedagogically appropriate and engaging approaches to facilitating learning through play. Mapping two underpinning educational approaches (heutagogy learner behaviours and Bloom’s taxonomy) against common game mechanics, the guide takes educators through reflective coaching exercises and practical steps in designing their own playful learning activities. This PLA playful activity library is structured using these game mechanic families and heutagogy learner behaviours to help you find a playful approach that has already been developed. By following the two links below, you can download:
1. The tour guide booklet that you can work through to develop a playful activity.
2. A card game that you can play to help you (and others) design a playful activity based around common tricky topics to teach.
Feel free to use these resources individually or to help those around you think about where to start with playful learning design. Do let us know how you get on and we welcome feedback and comments on the framework to make it better!
To cite these works:
Gillaspy, E., & Thompson, J. (2024a). The playful learning tour guide: A self-coaching educational framework to help you develop playful learning activities. National Teaching Repository. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.25145456.v1
Gillaspy, E., & Thompson, J. (2024b). Playful learning tour guide: Card game edition. National Teaching Repository. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.26190803.v1
Gillaspy, E., & Thompson, J. (2024c). Interactive content: Playful learning game jam. https://view.genially.com/6683fd2bb387d1001487d4d7/interactive-content-playful-learning-game-jam
Further Information
Further Information (2)
Emma Gillaspy & Jim Thompson
University of Lancashire
Social Profile
Small (30 or less), Large (30 – 500)
Acting and Discussion, Maps and Movement, Pattern Recognition, Interaction, Risk and Reward, Drawing, Goals, Resource Management, Physical Play
Exploring, Creating, Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing, Reflecting
CC BY-NC-SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/