The current context of expanding the educational system for the segment of early childhood education and establishment of literacy goals to 8 years of age justifies discuss the role that would have early childhood education in literacy. We emphasize the importance of significant situations of reading and writing to ensure, at school, participation of young children in sociodiscursive practices and, at the same time, ensure their authentic ways of learning, involving interactions and play as principles and as axes of pedagogical work. Recognizing the role of early childhood education in literacy of young children and emphasizing reading and writing practices as dialogue, this paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the role of this segment in the specific process of literacy, from significant situations of reflection on the language, especially about their sound dimension, in entertainment and / or literate contexts involving jokes with language. Among these, we point out children's play with texts of oral tradition, present in school as playful culture, but also privileged to play with the sounds of the language and its adjustments in relation to writing, favoring the process of appropriation of alphabetical notation.