Playground has partnered with Highlights Early Learning to bring their Preschool With a Purpose curriculum into Playground. This article covers what the partnership includes, what the curriculum covers, how to buy, what ships to your school, and how to find and use your content.

Preschool With a Purpose (PWAP) is a play-based preschool curriculum from Highlights Early Learning. Through this partnership you buy the physical curriculum from Highlights, and the content shows up digitally inside your Playground account.

You'll receive physical curriculum from Highlights, which include boxes with teacher guides, activity cards, theme posters, student journals, and family newsletters.

You'll get full access to PWAP's lesson and activity content, digitized within Playground. The activities live in your Activities library, so teachers can browse lessons and build lesson plans without digging through the box, and directors get more visibility into their program.

Highlights developed PWAP with a team of early learning experts, alongside current and former preschool teachers. Preschool With a Purpose draws on decades of work on how young children learn and what fits the rhythm of a real classroom.

Preschool with a Purpose is for children ages 3 to 5. The full curriculum includes 10 months of themed instruction, from September through June. It works for both half-day and full-day programs, and one classroom set covers up to 24 students.

You are able to use Preschool with a Purpose as your program’s complete curriculum, or as an enhancement layered onto what you already use.

PWAP doesn't follow a named pedagogy or teaching method. Highlights' philosophy is that children learn best using all of their senses and their whole bodies.

The approach is play-based and thematic. Children work through a theme for a week at a time, with a mix of teacher-led instruction and child-directed exploration, building skills across the year.

Highlights Early Learning has over 80 years of experience creating wholesome, child-centered materials that connect learning to children’s creativity, choice, and interests. The Preschool With a Purpose curriculum extends this philosophy into a structured yet flexible framework for preschool (ages 3–5), emphasizing:

The U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF) notes that high-quality early care and education (ECE) supports all children, especially those from birth to age 5, by fostering:

Key features of high-quality ECE identified in research include:

Highlights’ approach - play-based, child-centered, and thematically organized - aligns with these research-backed principles.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funds research on early learning, including:

While Highlights’ specific Preschool With a Purpose materials are not the subject of a federally funded evaluation, the curriculum’s design reflects evidence-based practices such as thematic instruction, guided play, and skill integration, which are supported by IES and ACF research.

PWAP is aligned to all 50 states' early learning standards, plus NAEYC, Head Start, and Common Core. You can find alignment to your state or standard-setting body by following this link: https://earlylearning.highlights.com/pages/alignment

PWAP is scoped and sequenced so that children can learn numbers, letters, and shapes in a specific order. Some months have highly seasonal content, making some of their content relevant only to a specific time of year.

However, if your teachers are primarily using the content as curricular enhancement, then it becomes a highly flexible product. Teachers can opt out of activities that aren't relevant, and they can ignore letter, number, and shape content, or use it to reinforce a given letter, number, or shape when relevant to their schedules.

You don't have to use all of the content either way. There's more in each kit than any single classroom will get through, and that's on purpose.

Each week centers on one theme, and the components of the week revolved around the following areas:

Highlights designed PWAP to require little-to-no professional development beyond what is provided in the Starter kit and monthly guides.That's especially true for teachers who are mainly pulling Circle Time and Learning Lab cards into what they already teach.

PWAP comes with an assessment framework that is available digitally in Playground. Contact our support team if you’d like to get this assessment framework set up for your school.

The physical materials you receive depends on which configuration you purchase from Highlights. Below, you’ll see an overview of what comes in each configuration.

10 Monthly Learning Kits

You will receive 10 Monthly Learning Kits, which enough lessons and activities for the full school year.

Starter Kit

The full curriculum also includes the Starter Kit. The Starter Kit includes everything you need to plan for play-based learning that covers all of preschool’s most essential skills, all year long.

(September - January OR February - June)

You will receive 5 Monthly Learning kits, aligned to the months that you purchased.

You will receive the monthly kit for the month you purchased.

All Circle Time cards and Learning Labs are digitized in the Activities section of the Lessons tab. You will get the activities that match the physical curriculum you purchased, so if you purchased a half-year, you'll see digital content for the months you purchased.

Below is pricing for PWAP. Prices listed below exclude shipping, handling, and tax.

Follow this link on the Highlights website to access a free trial of Preschool with a Purpose: https://earlylearning.highlights.com/pages/try-it-for-free

You build lesson plans from Highlights activities the same way you build them from any other activity in Playground.

Example Lesson Plan

Highlights activities sit in the same Activities library as everything else you use, so you can add them into plans however you like.

Pull one Circle Time activity a day, run a full Highlights week, or use the whole month as written.

If you have a question that you don't see the answer to here, you can reach out to either the Highlights team, or Playground support, depending on your question.

If you have a question about fulfillment, shipping, billing, or returns, reach out to the Highlights Customer Experience team here. You can expect a response within 24 hours.

If you are interested in purchasing PWAP curriculum, and want to speak to a Highlights Early Learning team member to learn more, contact Playground support, and we will connect you to the right person.

If you are experiencing issues with Playground, such as content not loading, missing activities in the Activities tab, difficulty building a lesson plan, or other technical issues in Playground, reach out to Playground support.

Who am I buying Preschool with a Purpose from?

You buy the curriculum from Highlights, through the link your Playground rep gives you. Highlights bills you directly and ships your materials.

For invoices, receipts, or payment questions on the curriculum, contact Highlights Customer Experience.

Is this a subscription? Will I be charged every month?

No. It's a one-time purchase, and there's no recurring curriculum cost. Once you buy it, the materials are yours and the digital activities stay in your Playground account.

Do the boxes include the craft supplies and materials for the activities?

No. Highlights built PWAP around common classroom materials you already have, which cuts down on storage, packaging, and waste. Every teacher guide includes a materials-to-gather list so you can see what you need planning for the week.

Do I need the Starter Kit?

If this is your first year with PWAP, yes. The Starter Kit holds the guides, planner chart, journals, and assessment materials the rest of the curriculum assumes you have. It comes bundled with the full 10-month curriculum. With a half-year or a monthly kit, you add it for $99.

My classroom has more than 24 students. How does this impact what I purchase?

Buy an Expansion Bundle for $65 per additional 6 students. Each one includes 6 more family newsletters, student journals, and sets of assessment materials.

Can I use the months out of order?

Yes, with one thing to plan around. PWAP is sequenced so children pick up letters, numbers, and shapes in a specific order, and September, November, and December carry heavily seasonal content.

If you're running PWAP as your full curriculum, work through the months in order so that sequence lands as designed.

If you're using it as an enhancement or pulling mainly from Circle Time and Learning Lab cards, it's very flexible. Skip the cards that don't fit your time of year, and either ignore the letter, number, and shape content or use it to reinforce what you're already teaching.

You don't have to use everything. There's more in each kit than one classroom will get through.

Can I try it before I buy?

Yes! You can sign up to receive one FREE week of the February Monthly Theme Collection Kit here.

Can I return the curriculum?

Highlights Early Learning guarantees 100% satisfaction. To return an order, contact Customer Experience. To qualify for a full refund and hassle-free returns, materials must be returned within 60 days from delivery date.

When will my curriculum boxes arrive?

Online orders ship within 3 to 8 business days of your order. Orders generally arrive in one box.

The full Preschool With a Purpose curriculum arrives in 3 separate boxes, including 1 box with the Starter Kit and 2 boxes with the Monthly Theme Collection Kits. All will be delivered on the same day or within days of each other, depending on the carrier.

How long until my digital curriculum content shows up in Playground?

Within 5 business days of your purchase. That's usually a few days before your physical boxes arrive, so you can start planning while you wait. If it's been longer than 5 business days, reach out to Playground support.

What do I need to rebuy for year two?

Highlights Preschool With a Purpose can be used year after year. Consumable items, such as student writing journals, teacher weekly planner, and weekly family newsletter, are available for purchase.

My Highlights content isn't loading, or an activity is missing.

Refresh the page and confirm you're looking in the Activities tab under Lessons.

Check that the missing content matches what you bought. If you purchased one month, you'll only see that month's activities. If it still doesn't look right, reach out to Playground support with the activity or month that's missing and we'll take a look.

Do the curriculum boxes arrive each month, or all at once?

The curriculum boxes arrive all at once, the boxes do not arrive monthly.

Do I still have access to the Highlights Digital Planner?

Access to the Highlights digital planner is not included as part of this partnership.