Resumen

CACIANO, Caroline  y  SILVA, Denise Madeira de Castro e. “The bell rang. It’s time to play!”: children’s perceptions during school transition. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.25, n.85, pp.540-555.  Epub 24-Jul-2025. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.25.085.ds08.

The aim of this article is to analyze children’s perceptions of play during the transition process from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School, seeking to understand how playfulness can ensure continuity and a successful transition between these educational stages. The data were collected in a study with the children (Caciano, 2024), using an ethnographic approach (Geertz, 1989), along with its methodological tools: participant observation (Filho and Barbosa, 2010), conversation circles (Garanhani; Alessi, 2022), the field notes (Winkin, 1998) and commented drawings (Martins, 2010). From the approaches to the empirical field, three thematic units were obtained for analysis: 1) meanings attributed to time; 2) school environment and pedagogical practices; 3) spaces enriched by the children. This article is the result of a cross-section of the analyses, so that it was possible to observe the children’s perceptions of play, which were interwoven with time and space in the transition from Early Childhood Education to Elementary School. Thus, although the intention is to build continuity between the stages, it is known that the experience of children during the transition generates many discontinuities, since the educational intentionality differs. At this stage, new challenges are encountered in the daily pedagogical routine. The conclusion is that, through playfulness, the children enriched the spaces through play and that, even though they were attending another stage of basic education, in which new skills are required, they remained children, still in need of time and space to play.

Palabras clave : Early childhood education; Elementary School; Transition between educational cycles; Play.

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