The Montessori birthday celebration focuses on concepts related to the passage of time and honoring each student's special day. These traditional Montessori celebrations help students understand what it really means to have a birthday, especially those of a very young age.
The "Earth Goes Round the Sun" tradition lets students act out the passage of time in a concrete way. This way they get to see how their existence fits into our greater world which helps them gain a basic understanding of astronomical concepts.
So, how is this really done?
If this is your first year at SB Montessori read ahead to get an idea of how the magical moment happens.
When a child has a birthday at SB Montessori is always exciting! Parents send a request 1-2 weeks prior to the Birthday week. This request allows our teachers to prepare for the day. Parents or Guardians will be allowed to come to the school that day to be part of the celebration. The form request also allows you to know how many treats to bring so the entire class can celebrate together.
During the celebration, the teacher will light a candle in the center of the room to represent the sun. Sometimes our supplies will have a fake candle for safety reasons.
The months of the year are written on sentence strips and placed evenly in a circle around the candle.
The Student holds a globe while walking a circle around the “sun”, starting at his or her birthday month.
The whole class sings this song, to the tune of The Farmer and the Dell:
The Earth goes around the sun
The Earth goes around the sun
The Earth goes around the sun
And [child’s name] was one.
At this point, the teacher will allow the parent/guardian to show the student’s photos or artifacts starting from age 1 and talk about briefly what happened at this age. We also allow the student to speak If they prefer and even let students ask a few questions.
This process is repeated until the student's current age is reached. At this point, if preferred by the student and parents we sing the Happy Birthday song and move outside to serve the students treats.
As a Student's birthday approaches, parents or guardians are encouraged to reach out to Ms. Nancy at least 2 weeks in advance and turn in the Birthday request form to make preparations for the birthday celebration.
Remember you will need some photos from each year of the child’s life as well as information about major life events or milestones that happened each year. Things like getting a younger sibling or moving to a new house are examples, but anything important to the child works. All of this will help you when it comes to the student's birthday celebration in the classroom.
Here at SB Montessori, we believe that birthdays are about honoring a person’s life and the events that have unfolded in it thus far. The Montessori birthday tradition promotes respect for the child by celebrating even the smallest members of society in this special way.
**See Important information on Birthday Celebration policy this year 2021-2022
