CHILDREN NARRATE NATURE: FREE PLAY, EXPERIENCES, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MEANING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the narratives roduced by children in Early Childhood Education about their experiences of free play in natural environments, seeking to understand the meanings they construct through the relationships they establish with themselves, their peers, and nature. Grounded in Childhood Studies, which recognize children as social subjects, cultural producers, and protagonists of their own experiences, the study understands children's narratives as legitimate forms of expression and knowledge production about the world. Adopting a qualitative approach with ethnographic inspiration, the research was conducted in a public daycare center in the municipality of Maracás, Bahia, Brazil, involving 21 children aged four and five years. Data were generated through participant observation, field notes, and the listening to children's narratives during free play in natural settings. The findings reveal that nature constitutes a powerful territory for imagination, creativity, inquiry, and the construction of relationships, enabling children to produce meanings from their lived experiences. The study also highlights tensions between children's cultures and the institutional organization of time and space in Early Childhood Education. It concludes that listening to children's narratives strengthens pedagogical practices committed to the right to free play and to everyday experiences in and with nature.