More Play, Less Screen Time For Windsor Kids

WINDSOR, CT — Windsor Public Schools will bring back daily handwriting and cursive lessons and sharply reduce individual screen time in kindergarten through second grade this fall under a new curriculum model announced Wednesday.

Superintendent Dr. Noha Abdel-Hady unveiled the Windsor Early Learning Model, or WELM, during an Aug. 5 news conference. The district said the approach shifts the focus in its youngest grades from early performance benchmarks to child development while keeping literacy, math and assessment work in place.

Under the model, K-2 classes will have protected daily time for handwriting and cursive, with an emphasis on letter formation and fine motor skills. The district also plans to eliminate several software licenses used for individual tablet work and redirect that funding to other classroom materials.

Technology will remain available for teacher-led, whole-class instruction, Abdel-Hady said, but will not be used to replace teaching or individual student learning on devices.

The new model also calls for more play-based, outdoor and project-based lessons, along with attention to oral language, social-emotional learning and children’s curiosity. Students could build a pretend grocery store while practicing counting and problem-solving, make observations outdoors or use classroom projects to apply academic skills.

“That is not recess. That is not free time before the real learning starts,” Abdel-Hady said. “In a Windsor classroom this fall, that is the curriculum.”

First-grade teacher Vanessa Barton, who helped plan the model, said play-based learning is “not an addition to the curriculum,” but an intentional way of delivering it. Students may build with blocks while using measurement and engineering concepts, act out stories to deepen reading skills or create models to demonstrate science learning, she said.

District materials say the model is grounded in neuroscience, literacy science and child-development research. Officials said the goal is not to lower expectations, but to give children multiple ways to learn and show what they know.

Windsor Public Schools serves nearly 4,000 students across six schools. The model is scheduled to be in place on the first day of the 2026-27 school year.

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