Plays and games of Pantanal children: a study in an “escola das águas””

Abstract In the city of Corumbá, Pantanal, there is a group of schools called “Schools of Water,” so called because they are in regions difficult to access and are influenced by the water cycle of Pantanal. The present article discusses the results of a doctoral study that analyzed the ludic culture of the children in one of these schools. The study was carried out with 33 children, in a school context, and involved observations, interviews, and drawings about games produced by children at the researcher’s request. The data were submitted to content analysis and categorized into two thematic axes: 1. Type of game; 2. Media in the ludic culture. The results indicate strong similarities between the play culture of Pantanal children and that of children from other regions of Brazil, and little presence of Pantanal culture in the ludic activities developed by the children in the school.