Abstract: Learning through playfulness has been the subject of academic debate not only in Brazil, but in several countries around the world, and a fundamental issue for reflection is that, even though we are aware of the importance of playfulness, activities involving the act of playing still do not take place effectively in the daily life of early childhood education. Therefore, it is necessary to critically analyze the conception of educators regarding the applicability and functionalities of the act of playing for the integral formation of children in the first years of their schooling. In this context, a study was developed with the objective of describing how educators who work in Early Childhood Education at the Proinfância Cremilde Bezerra Wanderley daycare center conceive and apply actions that involve playing and, whether these practices are aimed at favoring the teaching-learning process and the integral development of learners. A group formed by seven educators who work in a municipal daycare center located in the city of Patos, PB, Brazil, participated in the study. Data collection was obtained through an interview applied to the group, in which a semi-structured script was followed. Based on the data collected through the educators, it was found that there are daily challenges that are faced by the educators to offer quality education to early childhood education children enrolled in that institution. Thus, it can be inferred that to ensure children’s right to learn through play, it is necessary to review the factors that negatively influence the efficiency of play in the pedagogical context, such as: lack of teacher preparation, lack of play resources, large classes , inadequate classroom, work overload that generates physical and mental fatigue for educators, teachers who do not have the profile nor the interest to work in child education. In this sense, it is believed that the educator who works in early childhood education must, above all, have the desire to be there, to get involved and develop his pedagogical practice linked to the child education guiding documents, as the challenges are countless, but they can only be overcome When you want to, this means that wanting to work in child education is the first requirement to promote quality education for a peculiar public that demands to educate and care simultaneously.

Keywords: Child education; pranks; playfulness; apprentices.