Birthdays in the Classroom: Celebrate in a Unique Way

Often times, birthdays in the classroom are a day where students get to bring in a treat for the class and wear a fancy outfit (or free dress at my school since my students wear uniforms). I try to make birthdays more than just a day where students eat sugary snacks at recess, bounce off the walls until lunch, and then crash before dismissal.

I like to incorporate a celebration about important events that have happened in student’s lives up until this point and something they look forward to now that they have turned a year older.

A Unique Way to Celebrate Birthdays in the Classroom

Birthday Celebration Form

At back to school night, I send many forms home with parents, one of them being my birthday celebration form. On this form, parents fill out an important event or memory that has happened each year that the child has been alive. They also fill out something that they are looking forward to now that they are a year older. Find that and other components for a birthday celebration here.

Parents fill out this form and send it back to me as soon as possible so that when it’s their child’s birthday, I can use it for our class celebration.

Birthday Celebration Procedure

I set aside about five minutes before recess when we celebrate a student’s birthday.

I call students to the rug and they sit on the outside of the carpet. Then, the student whose birthday it is, gets cards that have each month of the year on them. (Each morning during morning circle we sing a months of the year song like this). We sing that song again during this celebration and as we sing each month, the birthday boy or girl puts the month cards down in a circle in the middle.

Once the song is over, I ask the student to find his or her birth month and to stand by it. Then, as I start reading a special moment or event that happened in their first year of life, they walk around the circle as if a year is passing and stop when they reach their birth month once again. I continue to read each event that has happened in the child’s years of living. Then, as I read something they look forward to, they walk around the circle one last time.

Birthday Celebrations

From there, the birthday student collects the month of the year cards as we sing the months of the year song. Once the student is finished picking them up, we sing happy birthday to him or her. Do any of your students like to sing the “cha cha cha, high-ya” version of the birthday song?

I like to finish this celebration with the student choosing quiet friends to go line up for snack. They love having the responsibility and take it very seriously when choosing the students who are sitting the nicest. And, of course everyone is trying to get out to snack ASAP to get their hands on the sugar!

More Than Just Treats

I like this way of celebrating a student’s birthday because it’s a way for students to get to know important events and memories that have happened in each other’s lives. It’s also a way for me to get to know students better.

Many times, as I’m reading what parents have written about their child’s life, other students will make connections out loud. I often read “Student name went to Disneyland for the first time” and I’ll hear.. “I’ve been to Disneyland!” from one of the other students. I love that this celebration brings students together and connects them in a way that they might not connect out on the playground pretending to be zombies or playing tag.

If you want to try this celebration out in your own classroom, you can purchase my birthday set in my TpT store here.

Often times, birthdays in the classroom are only celebrated with a sugary treat. Read here to find out a unique way to celebrate with your students.

How do you like to celebrate birthdays in your classrooms? Do you have any special celebrations?

 

 

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