Title: Learning for play in early childhood education and care institutions.Abstract: This article is a contribution to a discussion concerning the content of Norwegian early childhood education and care institutions. Based upon re-analyses of qualitative material from two PhD-projects, Vennskap mellom små barn i barnehagen (Greve, 2007) and Revelations in bodily play (Løndal, 2010), we investigate the significance of play for learning. The investigation shows that play creates interactions between the children and their surroundings that generates learning in a broad sense. Such learning appears to have crucial significance for further play, and is experienced as very important by the children.