We present the results of Master’s degree study that aimed to investigate the characteristics of pedagogical work developed by teachers with children in the first year of elementary school. Through a case study, it presents an analysis of the dimensions that emerged from the data processing: the playful. The documents published by the MEC propose a reformulation of the pedagogical proposal by schools and school systems, to implement the nine-year elementary school, observing, with regard to the early years, the importance of playfulness, respect
for childhood and its various expressions. The data demonstrate that play, while revered by teachers, is also mistakenly seen as a teaching strategy/method, as a
break/rest in the teaching and learning of content, or as a tool for encouraging study.