The Kindergarden and the Clay

Early in the mornings we filled up the van with kids and to the sound of the „Final Countdown“ from Queen we headed towards São Luís.
Whatever Maya´s proposals were, getting to know the different states of clay, transforming it into dust, adding water to it, shaping little islands, mushrooms or snowmen and painting them, you could see magic happening there. I don’t ́t if it was Maya´s presence or the power of the material but the children ’s focus and concentration was surprising.
From the youngest, who ’s only 3 and who was simply enjoying experiencing the material, to the older ones who already had loads of ideas of what to shape and how to do it, all of them were in total union with the clay. And Maya was merely the observer of the process and giving a few inputs here and there as if she knew the motto of Maria Montessori „Help me do it on my own“.