Thursday, March 3, 2011

Birthday Time!

Our family is so fortunate to have two birthdays in one week!  We have celebrated Big Stuff's eighth birthday while Little Miss' celebration followed two days later for her second birthday.  While we generally keep the events low-key, we were sure to mark the occasions with some family traditions.

Family Tradition:  Birthday cake in our P.J.'s!
Big Stuff has immersed himself with some new Lego sets and we have all been briefed on their heightened status in the house...Nobody can touch these!


Little Miss had a special celebration at school as well.  Montessori classrooms have a wonderful way of celebrating a child's birthday with a Birthday Walk.  The child takes part in a Celebration of Life, an event which honors the child's life and accomplishments.  In my classroom, the parents are invited to participate in this meaningful activity and read their child's story and share photos..  The Celebration of Life is done during circle time with a special birthday mat.  A candle is lit to represent the moment of birth and placed on the sun (on the mat). Then, the birthday child holds a globe and walks around the birthday mat (one time for each year of their life) while the children sing the following song (tune: Farmer in the Dell):

The Earth goes round the sun,
The Earth goes round the sun,
It takes a whole year for the Earth,
To go around the sun!

Our Birthday Mat 
This one is from Waseca Biomes.
As the child walks around the sun holding the globe, a concrete representation of the passage of time is created.  I love how this celebration honor's the life of the child and leaves a lasting impression! 
Our classroom is used to having Birthday Walks for four and five years olds, so the kids relished the idea that Little Miss only had to walk around two times!  

Little Miss' Birthday Walk at school.

5 comments:

  1. Dear Sasha,

    What a beautiful blog you have created. I am currently working on writing a new Geography album for publication and was hoping to use the beautiful photograph of the Waseca Birthday Celebration Sun as a visual for one of the lessons. Your name and link the website with be credited for the photograph. Waseca will also be referenced as the source for the actual material. I am willing to provide more details in private conversation. Please email at wrb0024gmail.com. Much Gratitude for your beautiful work, thank you!

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  2. Where do you find the beautiful sun in the picture?

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  3. where do you get the beautiful sun in the picture?

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  4. where do you get the beautiful sun in the picture?

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