The Montessori celebration of life ceremony is a very meaningful birthday celebration for young children … and can be as easily done at home as in the classroom. Many classrooms have a simple and inexpensive layout, while others have beautiful purchased or homemade mats for the layout.
You can purchase a mat for home use, or you can simply use printables to prepare your layout. I’m sharing links to the free printables I used for a Montessori birthday celebration at home (actually, at Grandma’s house).
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I’ve written before about the beautiful Montessori birthday celebration: “Montessori Birthday Celebration – A Lovely Celebration of Life Ceremony” (a roundup of ideas for a celebration of life) and “Free Celebration of Life Songs and Printables for a Montessori Birthday.”
Materials for a Montessori Birthday at Home
Layout for Montessori Celebration of Life Ceremony with Months and Seasons
Traditional Layout for a Montessori Celebration of Life Ceremony
Materials We Used:
- Free sun printable from Clker.com
- Candle to represent the sun (I used an LED candle as a tradition, especially for safety when I have babies and toddlers around. Preschoolers can use a real candle with close supervision or an LED candle.)
- Free Month Labels by Ms Amy’s Learning Toolbox at Teachers Pay Teachers
- Free Seasons Cards by MOMtessori Life at Teachers Pay Teachers (seasons labels are optional for the birthday ceremony)
- Montessori globe or another type of globe to represent the earth
- Photo for birth and each birthday
- Script starting with birth and telling about each year of the child’s life
Note: I laid out the months (and Zoey did her birthday walk) counterclockwise … the same way the earth revolves around the sun.
Our Montessori Birthday Ceremony
We were lucky to have a Montessori family celebration recently for Zoey’s 4th birthday. It was attended by Zoey’s parents (my son, Will, and daughter-in-law, Chea), Zoey’s aunt and uncle (my daughter, Christina, and son-in-law, Tom), and my husband, Terry, and me.
In a classroom, you’ll typically see the children sitting in a large circle or ellipse around the outside of the layout with enough room for the birthday child to walk around the “sun.” For a family birthday, the family members might be more comfortable sitting on the sofa and/or on chairs. That’s fine. Both Chea and Christina are pregnant, so we decided to have everyone sit on the sofa and love seat while Zoey did her birthday walk.
Zoey’s mom and dad had prepared a script to read. They also had a photo for each year. You could just spontaneously talk about each year if you prefer not to prepare a script.
You really can do this part however you wish. You’ll find free printables that can be used in my “Free Celebration of Life Songs and Printables for a Montessori Birthday.”
Layout for Montessori Celebration of Life Ceremony along with Photos for Birth to Age 4
Although the picture shows the photos of Zoey, we didn’t have the photos laid out. Typically, you’ll want to show a photo for each year during its time in the birthday celebration.
Going around the Sun in Her Montessori Birthday Celebration
First Zoey was described as a baby. Then Zoey walked once around the “sun” as we all sang to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”:
More Montessori Birthday Resources
You’ll find a variety of ideas for a Montessori birthday celebration in my “Montessori Birthday Celebration – A Lovely Celebration of Life Ceremony.”
See my “Free Celebration of Life Songs and Printables for a Montessori Birthday” for more resources.
If you’d like to add a book to your celebration, this one is commonly used for Montessori birthday celebrations and is lovely: On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier
You can even have a simple Montessori birthday celebration for a 1 year old!
Montessori New Year’s Celebration and Activities Related to Months and Seasons
See my post about a “Montessori New Year’s Celebration” for ideas on using a similar ceremony to bring in the New Year.
You’ll find follow-up activities to birthday or New Year celebration of life ceremonies in my “Montessori-Inspired Months and Season’s Activities for Hands-on Learning.”
I’d love to hear about any Montessori birthdays you’ve had or are planning! 🙂
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