Play is a freely chosen primary activity of young children, which is free of external goals. It is a series of activities, a source of joy, which is done for the sake of doing them. The play has an overall effect on the children’s personality, shaping various forms of social behavior in them. The paper is to explore the specificities of play in preschool-aged children. In addition to introducing the notions of play-consciousness, play-orientedness, and playfulness, it is to analyze similarities as well as differences between play and learning