This research project explores the interconnections between three constructs: joy, play, and learning. The research specifically focuses on children's ideas and experiences of joy, play, and learning at a public Montessori School in the United States of America and in the context of engaging with selected math games. The games used are commercially available and are not the usual Montessori material used for teaching math. The project also focuses on how the insights generated through the research can be translated into instructional strategies that may improve children's learning experience. A few of the elements that make the proposed research unique, challenging, and gratifying are its focus on (a) capturing a nebulous concept like joy/happiness as it relates to (b) broadening conceptualization of learning/experiencing (math) through play (c) giving precedence to the voice and perspective of children as opposed to adult's version of children's conceptions, and (d) endeavoring to unravel children's experience of the phenomenon of joy from a collective rather than solely individual lens.The outputs of the research project are presented as four artifacts: two research papers (chapter 2 and 3), and two small movies corresponding to the two papers respectively. The first paper, 'Unsupervised Play with games: an unexplored possibility for high-quality playful learning,' focuses on unraveling the connection between play and learning. It shows how unsupervised play with games can help create a classroom community promoting 'high quality of play' replete with learning. The second paper, 'Exploration of children's experience of joyful learning through unsupervised play with (math) games/toys', focuses on the connection between joy and learning. The paper attempts at a phenomenological understanding of the children's lived experience of joyful learning. It builds on the findings of the first paper that show how carefully created opportunities for unsupervised play may be replete with learning opportunities. The second paper presents the conclusions through a 'six F' framework that describes how the six constructs (each starting with the letter F) can provide us a means for observing, understanding, and enabling joyful learning. Two small movies containing animation and selected videos from the study comprise the other output of this research. The movies attempt to capture the findings from the study in an engaging manner and are directed primarily toward a non-academic audience. The inclusion of some videos from the data gathered for the research allows the viewer to engage with the study, which might otherwise not be possible through text alone. The movies also supplement the readers' engagement with the two papers.
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