Children's games as a social experience of knowledge elaboration about the phisical world in the early childhood education

Abstract

With the goal to understand the articulations among play in the children social
experiences and the knowledge elaboration about the physical world, we report an experience,
starting in an action-research, in the Early Childhood Education context witch twenty-three
children and its teacher, of level IV at a Municipal Center for Early Childhood Education, at Natal
city, RN. Based on theoretical understandings about playing, the objectives set forth in the
Brazilian National Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and educational
research practices, we developed two didactic sequences that involved playing and
investigative experiences about the rain cycle and the gravity. The interpretations allowed us to
conclude that: children have developed thought by making decisions, testing hypotheses and
systematizing, with different languages, their understandings of the natural phenomena that
appeared in their games; the Early Childhood Education is a space for the production of the knowledge that enriches the characteristics of childhood, while enabling to the teacher to become a researcher of their educational practices.