Birthdays are special days in the lives of our children and families. For a child, one year is a significant amount of time relative to their life. Borrowing from the Montessori tradition, we strive to celebrate birthdays in a way that is both meaningful and educational. Our school celebrates birthdays with singing and a tradition called “a celebration of life/a walk around the sun.” A walk around the Sun typically goes like this: A candle is put in the middle of the room to represent the sun, and labels for each month of the year are laid out around it. The teacher and class form a circle around the candle, while the birthday boy or girl stands next to their month of birth. The child then walks around the candle once for each year of their life. The teacher/parent reads a special memory and accomplishment for each year. We encourage parents to send pictures of their children for this celebration, as well as write something to be read to them during their walk around the sun – in an effort to make this celebration even more unique and meaningful. As children walk around the Sun, their classmates sing:
The earth goes round the sun, The earth goes round the sun, It takes 12 months for the earth to go around the sun, And then Margot was one…
“The earth goes round the sun, The earth goes round the sun, It takes 12 months for the earth to go around the sun, And then Margot was two…