Family Life Wordless Wednesdays

Not So Wordless Wednesday: The Montessori Birthday Walk

The celebratory birthday walk is a beautiful tradition kept by many Montessori schools, and today was Tee’s turn to take a birthday walk. She held the Earth and walked a symbolic year around a lit candle representing the sun. All the other children sat in a circle around her and sang (to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”):

The Earth goes round the sun,
The Earth goes round the sun,
The Earth goes round the sun, and then
Tee turns one!

The birthday walk is a beautiful Montessori tradition

The children clapped once, then Tee talked about some of the things she did when she was one, like walking and eating solid foods. She took another circuit around the Sun candle repeating the pattern for each year. “Tee turns two!” clap clap; “Tee turns three!” clap clap clap; “Tee turns four!” clap clap clap clap.

And then finally we got to “Tee turns five!” This was Tee’s cue to talk about what she wants to accomplish this year: go to kindergarten and do big girl work. At the end of the ceremony she blew out the candle and all the children wished her a happy birthday. And then we had cupcakes, because all birthdays deserve cupcakes!

The birthday walk is a beautiful Montessori tradition

Leave a Comment

18 Comments