

Finally, during the selection of the playful material, the following factors must be taken into account: the time and scope of application, the standards of activity performance, the knowledge of the public in question, the educational potential of the resource, and the activity’s aim (content support, review, or memorization) (Garcez, 2014).

Brougère (2014) stated that, when a playful activity is conceptualized, the cultural context into which it is inserted must be interpreted to give meaning to that activity.

Macedo, Petty, and Passos (2005) concluded that valuing the playful dimension in school activities enabled students to be protagonists in their own activities and fostered their understanding of the processes involved in development and content learning. (2016) argue that procedures such as seminars, workshops, role-play activities, activities with playful dynamics, musical interpretations, and commented readings may also constitute active teaching-learning methodologies. The authors place the active methodologies as processes that view the student as an active subject in the construction of knowledge, since the student is valued in the experiences, knowledge, reflections, and opinions involved in these processes. Thus, the traditional teaching methodology can interfere with student formation Santos and Schnetzler (2010) reported that, from a perspective based on a constructivist conception of teaching, the best teaching strategies were those that enabled students’ active participation and developed their decision-making abilities.īased on these considerations, Diesel, Baldez, and Martins (2017) claim that teachers must seek methodologies that value the interaction between the subjects involved in the teaching-learning process, youth protagonism, and student autonomy, thus providing meaningful learning. (2016) suggest that learning must be built by the student and not simply reproduced in a mechanical way. However, without interesting classes, students can find it difficult to maintain attention.ĭiesel, Baldez, and Martins (2017) highlight the need for teachers to seek new teaching methodologies that can promote the critical, reflexive, and autonomous formation of their students. Furthermore, Campos and Cunha (2013) highlighted that students developed themselves by performing interesting and motivating activities such activities are often introduced by teachers during classes. Furthermore, Klein and Pátaro (2008) agreed that schools, as social and democratic institutions, must rethink their contents, methods, and educational actions in order to provide practice activities that will contribute to students’ active education as citizens.Ĭampos and Siqueira (2013) warned that, despite the advances in high school admissions, students’ critical thinking skills were still limited according to Arruda (2007), a considerable part of the student population was not prepared to study in an organized way, since they encountered teachers who were unprepared to conduct the teaching-learning process. Silva and Ferreira (2014) claimed that the function of the school included not only transmitting information but also preparing students to seek knowledge according to their needs and their individual and collective development. The school, which offers intellectual and moral preparation to students, is a space of great social significance, and it is also a place for social interaction (Silva & Ferreira, 2014).

Thus, schools must consider the importance of playful activities in student development and propose learning situations that will enable teachers to diversify their teaching methods and make classes more dynamic and differentiated. The activity’s content contextualization provided a better understanding of the subject and made it more realistic. The methodology used enabled the students to review the chemical elements of the periodic table and their distribution and classification into different families, thus highlighting the interaction among the student group members. To achieve this, a practical activity to construct a periodic table with accessible materials was proposed with the aim of promoting students’ understanding of the periodic table and relating it to their daily lives. This descriptive study applied a qualitative approach to a case study. This experience report aimed to describe a playful classroom activity wherein high school students from a public school participated in the construction of a periodic table.
