Play with AI (PL-AI): A play-centered, design-based curriculum for AI literacy in pre-K and kindergarten

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This paper reports on the design, implementation, and refinement of Play with AI (PL-AI), a developmentally appropriate curriculum designed to introduce foundational artificial intelligence (AI) concepts to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children. Using a design-based research (DBR) approach, two pre-K and two kindergarten teachers co-designed, piloted, and refined seven sequenced activities integrating unplugged play (e.g., children composing and testing “how-to” algorithms), tangible coding (e.g., programming Bee-Bot or Ozobot to follow paths), and guided dialogue with a social AI robot (e.g., comparing children's story endings with the robot's). The study addressed two research questions:(1) How does teacher participation in co-design shape implementation feasibility, pedagogical confidence, and curriculum ownership during the enactment of a play-based AI literacy curriculum? and (2) What design principles emerge as feasible and sustainable for embedding AI literacy in early childhood classrooms? Data sources included teacher surveys, 32 h of classroom video, researcher field notes, and design-meeting transcripts. Findings are presented as qualitative and formative evidence documenting patterns of enactment, teacher adaptation, and children's emerging reasoning. Quantitative tallies and observational rubrics are reported as descriptive indicators to inform iterative refinement, not as validated outcome measures or statistically generalizable learning gains. Teachers' confidence and pedagogical agency increased substantially, with co-design participation fostering curriculum ownership, reflective practice, and meaningful adaptation. Across iterative cycles, four interrelated design principles emerged—embodied play, tangible coding, guided dialogue, and teacher co-design—supporting conceptual clarity, developmental appropriateness, and sustainability. This study contributes to the emerging field of early AI education by offering empirically grounded design knowledge aligned with the AI4K12 Initiative (2024) and NAEYC (2021) frameworks, and provides practical guidance for integrating AI literacy through play-based, ethical, and collaborative pedagogy.