Montessori - Birthday Celebration

Birthdays are celebrated very differently in the Montessori classroom. The birthday ceremony gives the child a concrete way to understand the months of the year and the earth’s revolution around the sun each year. It also is a way for children to feel special and to connect with their place in the world.

The birthday student will hold the globe of the earth and slowly walk around a candle or another representation of the sun. As the child walks around the sun, the class sings the following song to the tune of “The Farmer and the Dell”:

The earth goes ‘round the sun.

The earth goes ‘round the sun.

The earth goes ‘round the sun

And Johnny turns 1.

Each time the child walks around the sun the group adds one year to the last line of the song so that the child is rotating around the sun as many years as they are old.