A Montessori birthday celebration

M-Moo and K-Wiggles both had their birthday celebrations at school today. Two separate classrooms, so M-Moo was first up at 9:15 and then K-Wiggles at 9:45.

I don't know if this is a particularly Montessori-specific thing, but our school has a very specific way of conducting a birthday celebration. It starts with all the kids sitting at the circle rug, singing a little song...

M-Moo, oh M-Moo.
Shall we tell you how we feel?
You have given us your spirit.
We love you very much.

The tune is definitely recongizable, but I can't put my finger on what the song is that originally went with the tune.

Then the teacher puts out the birthday celebration items. First is a candle of some sort, to represent the sun. Then the months of the year are laid out around the "sun." Then a small cup is placed by the month in which the child was born (November for M-Moo and K-Wiggles). Next the birthday child is handed a small globe (representing the earth, duh!) and three small beads (because M-Moo and K-Wiggles are turning three).

Then the child stands by the "sun" and the teacher (with help from mom) tells about when the child was in mama's tummy and the day she was born. The kids talk about newborns, shows pictures of the mama's tummy and the child as a newborn, and talks about what newborns do. The kids all chime in with what newborns do: poop, cry, sleep.

Then we all sing (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 now she's One.

The child walks around the candle, representing the Earth going around the Sun, which is, obviously, one year (a little astronomy lesson?)! At the end of the trip round the Sun, the child puts one bead in the little cup (a little math lesson?). Then we talk about what the child could do when he/she was one year old (sociology?).

Repeat all of this for Two, and for Three.

Then we ask the child whether they want Happy Birthday in Spanish or English (both of mine chose Spanish!) (a language lesson?). We sing Happy Birthday, and the child gets to choose a book from the birthday box.

It is all so sweet and lovely. The child just adores being the center of all that attention, and all the kids know the routine because we do this for each child's birthday for each of the three years that the kids spend in the Early Childhood classroom.

Oh, and at the end, the birthday child chooses two assistants to bring hand-sanitizer and napkins to each of the children at circle. Then the birthday child brings the treats around the circle, asking "would you care for a muffin?" And the children practice saying "yes, please" (or, "no, thank you"). It's part of the Montessori curriculum called "Grace & Courtesy" and it really is very sweet to see.

I don't have any pictures from today. I thought about bringing my camera, but since "mama" is so involved in the whole birthday celebration, it just wasn't feasible to try taking pictures too.

Anyway, that's what the girls were doing in school today.