From a survey on gender and sexuality in games played at the school playground during the break, I try to describe the process of inclusion as a researcher in a public school, narrating the various taken decisions that allowed reflection from the point of view of a foreigner in a Brazilian context. I carried out an ethnographic work in groups from the first to the fourth grade, focusing on a second and a third grade groups from the elementary school. In these groups, observations were made at different times of the daily school life, particularly during the school break at the playground and in interviews with the children. The results of the methodological choices permitted a further investigation on the meanings children give to their daily routine and on the ethnographer's task, besides allowing the observation that at the recreation area during the school break non-official and non-intentional learning occurs through which, among other moments in school, children learn how to behave as boys or girls.
ethnography; children; methodology; gender