Free Birthday Printables and Montessori-Inspired Birthday Activities

Birthdays are major life events for kids, and it’s fun to make them extra special. My grandson has his 5th birthday coming up in the beginning of March, so I decided to make a whole birthday unit! Here, you’ll find links to free birthday printables used to prepare hands-on activities and a new Montessori-inspired birthday pack for our newsletter subscribers’ resource library!

In this unit, we’re focusing on both traditional birthday activities with Montessori-style activities and the orbit of the earth around the sun to extend the Montessori birthday ceremony.

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).

M0ntessori Shelves with Birthday-Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired birthday-themed numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) Note: The Montessori-inspired birthday pack isn’t designed as a complete birthday unit but as supplemental materials. I design the packs using realistic images that I’ve often looked for when preparing a unit study (such as font cards and phonogram cards featuring the letter and phonogram related to the theme and math cards with realistic images that fit the theme and can be adapted for math activities at a variety of levels.)

You could mix your birthday-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special birthday-themed area something like the one pictured. My shelves at the beginning of our unit have a mixture of skill levels. Many of the activities can be adapted for a variety of levels. Many of these are designed for early elementary as well as preschoolers. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, simply rotate them.

Notice the framed art print His First Birthday (1899) by  Frederick Morgan. It’s a free download from Wikimedia Commons.

For our monthly featured art print, I purchased a Li’l DAVINCI art frame that opens in the front for easily changing a free art masterpiece printable or vintage illustration to fit with the month’s theme. The frame can be switched from horizontal to vertical without changing the hanger, which is perfect!

If you’re wondering about the rugs and rug box I use, both the rugs and wooden rug holder are from Montessori Services. I love the Montessori Services rugs and rug holder! I used to use an umbrella stand something like these. I loved that for 1-3 rugs, but I needed something different when I had more grandchildren and some projects that needed more than one rug.

Favorite Shelves, Trays, Baskets, and More for Montessori Homeschoolers

I often get asked about the trays, baskets, etc., that I use, so I published a post with many of the items. You can find lots of helpful resources here. They’re not all essential, so don’t feel you need to have everything. Just choose what’s best for your budget and your unique family’s needs. You’ll find more ideas in the Living Montessori Now Amazon shop

Birthday-Themed Books for Kids

Even though I have books on shelves, I’m now keeping many of my themed books in a forward-facing display after placing a plant where the themed book basket was before. My seasonal books are now in that book basket, although I have many of my snow-themed books on shelves for this unit. 

For toddlers and preschoolers, about ¾ of the books I use are typically Montessori friendly (focusing on reality without smiling or talking animals or smiling or talking vehicles). 

Books on Main Themed Shelves: 

• Birthdays Around the World
• Birthdays in Many Cultures
• My grandkids and I all love the National Geographic Kids Little Kids First Big Book series for its gorgeous photos and illustrations and easy-to-understand information. We’re using pages about the earth and sun from Little Kids First Big Book of Space.
• The Sun and The Moon are from a set of 6 science vocabulary readers with easy-to-understand scientific concepts.
• Pages fromScience As You’ve Never Seen Before. (With my grandkids at ages 5 and 9, I’m reinforcing many of the solar system concepts. For a younger child, you might want to just use another space book.)

Top Shelf of Forward -Facing Display:

• The Sun Is Kind of a Big Deal
• Sun! One in a Billion!
• Birthdays Around the World

2nd Shelf:

• Going Around the Sun: Some Planetary Fun
• The Reasons for the Seasons
• Sunshine Makes the Seasons

3rd Shelf:

• On the Day You Were Born
• If You Had Your Birthday on the Moon
• The Night Before My Birthday

4rd Shelf:

• Once Around the Sun (This is now expensive new, but it’s available used at a good price.)
• Happy Birthday, Cupcake!
• If  You Give a Pig a Party

Bottom Shelf

• Curious George and the Birthday Surprise
• I Am Invited to a Party!
• Happy Birthday from the Very Hungry Caterpillar

You can see many birthday books as they’re published here.

I also have the free Birthday Cake Breaths: A Mindfulness Breathing Exercise for Relaxation and Calm by Calm Ahoy Kids at TPT on our peace/mindfulness table along with the book Breathe With Me: Using Breath to Feel Strong, Calm, and Happy.

Montessori Continents Globe with Birthdays Around the World Book and Cards

Free Printable: Birthdays Around the World Pack by travel teach and love at TPT

Free Printable: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AROUND THE WORLD Multicultural Activity Book by LET’S GET REAL at TPT

Free Printable: Birthdays Around the World by Britt at TPT

The book is Birthdays Around the World. I always have a globe available for these types of books. I’ll probably get out our more detailed globe, too.

The cards and book aren’t a set even though they have the same name! I have limited shelf space, so I printed 4 cards on a page. This set is by travel teach and love. I’ve linked two other sets that will be fun to include later on.

Birthdays in Many Cultures Book with Birthday Search-Read-Write the Room for Short A and Long A Words

Free Printable: Birthday Themed Read/Search/Write the Room for Short and Long A by Erica Bohrer at TPT

Birthdays in Many Cultures is another book I’ll use with a globe.

Read-and-write-the-room activities are great for kids focusing on reading and writing! This one is more difficult than many. It features both short a and long a words, and the picture doesn’t identify the word. It’s great for green-level readers who are ready for a challenge! (Here’s a French Birthday Write the Room and some simpler write-the-room activities.)

Pages from Little Kids First Big Book of Space with Sun, Earth, Moon Resources in the Background

My grandkids and I all love the National Geographic Kids Little Kids First Big Book series for its gorgeous photos and illustrations and easy-to-understand information. This is Little Kids First Big Book of Space. See below for information about the materials in the background.

Birthday Salt Writing Tray with Movable Alphabet Spelling

Free Printables: “b” for birth and birthday for salt or sand writing tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printables: “ay” phonogram in day (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

You’ll see a variety of simple letter writing trays in my previous unit study posts. I often used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

The sandpaper letters I use are available in print or cursive.

I typically now use this lovely spelling/alphabet tray from FamilyTreeWW on Etsy. I like it for writing more than one letter or spelling words. (Note: If that sand tray is currently unavailable, you’ll find lots of other options for Montessori sand trays on Etsy.)

Note: The “y” at the end of the movable alphabet spelling should be blue because it’s used here as a vowel. I don’t know why I didn’t notice that before taking the photos. I thought about it for the compound word work below but didn’t think about it here. I guess I should embrace my mistakes. I’ll never make that mistake again, and maybe you won’t either.

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

Compound Word Books and Birthday Compound Word Work

I love to use books to reinforce word study (and pretty much everything)! The books are If You Were a Compound Word and Once There Was a Bull…. (frog) (a really fun book!).

Free Printable: “b” for birth font card (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable: “ay” phonogram in day (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printables: Birthday cake alphabet cards (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber)

Free Printable: Compound Words Activity Cupcake Theme by Marcia Murphy at Teachers Pay Teachers

I put together a number of free printables to focus on compound words. On the right is a control chart if needed. I don’t keep mine on the tray, though.

Birthday Cake Noun and Verb Grammar Activity

Free Printable: Birthday Party Parts of Speech Sort by Sheri Ellis at TPT (Note: The printable includes many more parts of speech than noun and verb. I’m just using these two for my almost-5-year-old grandson, who enjoyed the work.)

I just chose 4 candles for nouns and 4 candles for verbs because they fit well on each cake. It’s a fun way to extend early grammar work (or later grammar work if you include all the parts of speech in the printable).

(Note: I have the Kid Advance 3D Wooden Grammar Symbols with 10 Trays because they’re the closest to the Nienhuis 3D grammar symbols and are lovely but much less expensive. Right now, this set isn’t on Amazon, but there are a number of 3D wooden grammar symbol sets available even less expensively. I haven’t seen the sets personally, so I can’t make a recommendation. Printable grammar symbols can work well for homeschooling, too.)

Earth Goes Around the Sun Addition Activity … How Old Will I Be in _ Years?

Free Printable: Earth Goes Around the Sun numbers and symbols and 1-10 spinner (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber).

I designed this as a fun playdough addition activity. My 9-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, doesn’t need hands-on addition activities, but she wanted to do it because it looked like so much fun! She showed her 5-year-old sister, Sophia, how do the activity.

First, the child makes his or her own birthday cake. For the white cake/frosting, we used our homemade playdough recipe, which is easy to make and lasts up to 6 months! I have a variety of little molds to make designs for the top and sides of the cakes. (The molds are on our other playdough tray, but I have a cake set with molds and the colored playdough that’s on this tray.)

After that, the child places the number of candles on the cake to show the child’s current age. (I got these candles because they’re colorful and inviting … and I’ll have candles to celebrate kids’ birthdays for quite awhile!) Then the child spins the spinner to see how old he or she will be in that many years. That number of candles is added to the cake, and the total number of candles is the answer to the equation!

Both my granddaughters had fun with this and did it more than once. Caleb wasn’t there are the time, but he wants to do it today!

Of course, you can use the Earth Goes Around the Sun math cards in a variety of ways for simple counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or greater than, and less than. They’re designed to be adaptable for a space theme as well!

Shelf with Sun, Earth, Moon Resources

These aren’t free printables, but they’re so much fun! 

Sun, Moon, Earth Revolution Activity from the Seasons and Time Unit from Little Hands Learn

Months of the Year Mat Template from the Seasons and Time Unit from Little Hands Learn

The books are The Sun and The Moon from The Sun and The Moon are from a set of 6 science vocabulary readers with easy-to-understand scientific concepts. The open book is Science As You’ve Never Seen Before. (With my grandkids at ages 5 and 9, I’m reinforcing many of the solar system concepts. For a younger child, you might want to just use the book I have on the easel or another space book.)

I love these activities, and they’re very inviting for kids!

Here’s Caleb setting up the months and seasons felt puzzle. It’ll be our new center for Caleb’s walk around the sun in the beginning of March! (Note there are also directions for adding Montessori-style beads to the mat.)

Free Birthday Pack

 Montessori-Inspired Birthday Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Birthday Resources 

• Montessori Birthday Celebration – A Lovely Celebration of Life Ceremony
• Free Celebration of Life Songs and Printables for a Montessori Birthday
• Montessori Birthday at Home – How to Have a Simple Celebration of Life Ceremony
• Simple Montessori Birthday Celebration for a 1 Year Old
• Birthdays as Homeschool Holidays
• Montessori-Inspired Age and Birthday Activities

More Resources with Printables and/or Activities for a Montessori Birthday

• Free Solar System Printables and Montessori-Inspired Solar System Activities

• Free Y for Year Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)

• Free Months and Seasons Printables and Montessori-Inspired Months and Seasons Activities
• Montessori New Year’s Celebration (includes a fun way for young children to understand the science behind months and seasons),

If you’d like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout February and March, see my Feburary-Themed Activities for Kids and March Themed Activities for Kids.

It’s almost March … and spring!

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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