Birthdays - Celebrating Birthdays

For the past few years I've created a cute birthday display that the kids really seem to love. Basically, I bought a small flower box (the skinny, rectangular kind). I put some of that green floral foam stuff down in the planter and then made birthday pencils look like flowers by hot gluing a flower die-cut with the child's name and birthdate to the eraser of the pencil. Just stick the "flower pencils" into the planter add a little bit of Spanish moss to cover up the green foam and there you have it...Blooming Birthdays. My students have always LOVED picking their "flower" on their special day.

I also bought a birthday hat from Oriental Trade a few years ago. It looks like a birthday cake with candles that stick up. The kids love wearing it.

I decorate the student's desk for birthdays. I put balloons and few pieces of confetti, a pencil, and a card. I used to wrap their chairs with streamers, but I have chair pockets now. This year I'm going to add a Birthday Beenie Bear that they can have for the day. Treats are usually handed out at lunch...school policy.

One birthday idea I do is to have the class make a birthday booklet for whoever has the birthday. It is a preprinted page with a picture at the top of balloons and a birthday cake. Underneath I type the child's name veritcally. Every classmate writes an acrostic poem on their own page about the birthday child. I then give the birthday child a bound book with all the poems from his/her classmates. The birthday girl or boy is making the cover while the others are working on the acrostic poems. The cover is also preprinted and the birthday child just has to fill in the blanks and color it. They love it. I also give them a birthday certificate, lollipop, and no homework for the night. Summer birthday kids get to pick a "no homework day" during the year, but their birthday books are done in June before they leave for summer. Hope this helps.

I have a July birthday and always felt left out when other kids got to celebrate during the school year, so in my room we do un-birthdays (six months from your real summer birthday.) We work on calendar skills to find out everyone´s un-birthday and the kids who celebrate summer birthdays get really excited when I tell them they get to celebrate their un-birthdays! My parents get so excited by this, too. Many even send cupcakes or snacks that day because it´s such a novelty for their child. As for birthdays (and un-birthdays), I give the child 50 cents (the cost of ice cream in the school cafeteria.) If their parents send cake, etc we eat that, too. I also decorate the morning message with drawn stars, streamers, confetti, or pictures of something I know the child loves. It makes the day different.

Last year I asked each of my students what their favorite snack was. Then I made a birthday bag with their favorite snack (usually a candy bar), a free pick from my treasure chest, and a homework pass. Students loved it! Before last year, I picked one day a month, and all the students who had birthdays or half-birthdays (summer birthdays) during that month would go out for ice cream after school with me. Many of my former students mention how much they liked that. I stopped last year because my own children are getting so busy and active after school. I also let the birthday person choose a game like 7-UP or 4-Corners to play with the class on their birthday. Anyway...enjoy your birthday celebrations!

I have a birthday box in my room. It is a cardboard box that I wrapped with birthday wrapping paper and cut a hole out of the top. I filled the box with small toys (i.e cheap party favors from the party store) and covered the hole with a big bow. The box sits on my windowsill until it is a child's birthday. Then, the child can reach in the box and choose two items. He/She sticks a hand in (without looking) and is allowed one "throw back". The birthday child is usually happy that it is his/her turn and the other children get very excited to see what the child pulled out. I also give the birthday child a card.

I too celebrate birthdays in Kindergarten. Our school does not allow celebrations in any other grade level, so this is a BIG event. And, I have to admit, I do not go overboard due to our half day schedule.
At the beginning of each month, the students celebrating a birthday during the month put a birthday sticker on the calendar and write their name. We can count down the days until their birthday! (This builds some excitement.) The birthday child gets a crown upon arrival at school. I keep a "birthday box" filled with small toys, stickers, shoelaces, mostly things from Oriental Trading or IPARTY and the birthday child gets to pick two or three items from the birthday box. The child brings in a snack and a special book from home (which is read at circle time). Of course, they sit in a birthday chair (mine is a small wooden chair that the children help paint the first week of school-on the back of the chair I paint the words "Happy Birthday") during snack time. We sing "Happy Birthday" at snack time and I take a Polaroid picture (we don't have a digital camera). Finally, at one center in the classroom during our "work time/centers", the students sign a "class birthday card". I fold a large piece of construction paper (12"x18") in half and write "Happy Birthday" on the front. Inside the students sign their name and draw something small (flower, heart, smiley face, rainbow...). On the cover I attach the polaroid picture. This is a favorite keepsake. It's a fairly simple celebration.

I give the children each a birthday bottle. It is like a snow globe. I save the individual water bottles that I drink, take off the label with goo gone, add water, glitter, sequin birthday cakes and words "Happy Birthday" from the party store. I wrap the neck with white plumbers tape, add top and hot glue lid closed. I add a fancy circle material hat and ribbon. The kids love them.. I do them all at one sitting in the summer. We do half-birthdays during the winter months so summer birthdays have their special day too. I usually invite parents to send in treats, no hard candy please. Birthday bottles take time to make but are fairly cheap.

I have a Happy Birthday banner across the top of the door - they love seeing that first thing in the morning. I have a goody bag on their desk - with a homework pass, candy, eraser, birthday pencil, and small toy from treasure chest (like glider plane). If they bring a snack, we do that in the afternoon (school policy) and sing Happy Birthday (we still sing it then, even without a snack).

I'm also doing something new this year, similiar to the booklet idea. It's just one sheet of paper that I'll pass around the room. The kids will write one or two words that describes the birthday child. I may let them take it home, or put it in their scrapbook (can't decide!). I'm also trying to decide if I want to do all the sheets at one time (1 for each child's birthday) - and just save them for the birthdays - or do it on the actual birthday. Any thoughts

I have mini cupcakes in my freezer compartment at school. On a bithday I take out a cupcake place a candle on the top and the class sings "Happy Birthday". I take a picture of the birthday child and put the picture up in our bithday hall of fame. (I later use the picture in a book I make at the end of the year for each child.)

On our Hall of Fame Wall I have a birthday chart, bulletin board cutout of ballons, The Happy Birthday song, the birthday pictures and a cupcake border.

Each child is also given a birthday sticker and birthday pencil.

At the end of the school year, my students and I walk to a nearby park for a cookout to celebrate summer birthdays. All summer birthdays are assigned a picnic item to bring, ie. plates/napkins, hotdogs, condiments, dessert, etc. I cook the hotdogs in a crockpot in the morning and have a parent volunteer pick up all our goodies a bit early and take it over to the park's pavilion to serve us.
As for regular birthdays, I leave a birthday pencil and "It's my birthday" sticker on their desks. For however old a student is, he/she invites that many friends up to line up for birthday high-fives. We eat the birthday treats during our regular snack time, and I keep Little Debbie stuff on hand for students who don't bring birthday treats.