Birthdays are a very special occasion in Montessori classrooms to honor the years and accomplishments of each student. Here’s how we celebrate!
The Birthday Walk
Students gather in a circle and in the middle of the circle is a candle that represents the sun. Strips of paper with the months of the year are placed around the candle. The birthday girl or boy holds a globe and slowly walks around the sun representing each year of his or her life.
For example, if the child is four years old, he or she walks around the sun four times. This journey symbolizes the passages around the sun that the child has made during his or her life. It also helps young children to understand the months of the year and the earth’s revolution around the sun each year.
Parents are invited to contribute to the celebration by sharing milestones, special moments, and photos from the child’s life.
As the child walks around the sun, the teacher reads the child’s story for each year of their life, from birth through their current birthday.
The child really enjoys sharing these photos and talking about what they are doing in each photo and how they have grown and changed.
The friends enjoy celebrating the birthday child and reveling in how they have grown and changed from birth to the present.
This encourages the child to see how special they are and how much they add to their classroom community and to the world by being a part of it.
Building a Sense of Community
Montessori birthday celebrations make the students feel special and foster a sense of community in the classroom as we acknowledge the life and growth of our classmates in a positive way. The children love celebrating the uniqueness of each friend and making a special day.