Educational environment and material imagination

This article presents a master's degree research project in which we sought to identify ways in which young children create images of themselves and the world, when inhabiting and appropriating the educational environment in playful contexts and peer interaction. This is a narrative research project and was developed through a field study in a preschool in São Paulo, with children aged 4 and 5. During the research, we accompanied the children while they played, recording notes in the logbook, photographs, filming and recording interviews and conversations. The entire investigative process was conducted in dialogue with the children, considering not only their voices and words, but also their gestures, ways of occupying space and interacting with objects and elements of nature, giving greater visibility to the poetic dimensions of play. We conclude that elements of the material universe (such as texture, shape, weight and size) enhance play in its poetic and creative dimensions, supporting children in their interactions with each other and in the formulation of understandings about themselves and the world, highlighting the relationships between the educational environment and the material imagination that are woven in play.