Celebrating birthdays at school

[priyaanka]

How do you celebrate a student's birthday?

[Teach Compassion]

I always allow for at least some form of celebration, wether it be a full blown party with cuppicakes, or at least a round of applause for the celebrant. How could any caring teacher do nothing at all, is what I'd like to know!

Hmmph!
:)

[MandyandRobert]

This is my first year, but I am going to teach second grade this year, and (basically) this is what I plan on doing for birthdays. Obviously I haven't experienced it firsthand... yet.

- I have posted everybody's birthday on a colorful birthday poster.
- I give each child a birthday card that has a birthday pencil attached.
- The birthday child gets to wear a button and a hat.
- I give students a book or kids magazine (ie: Junie B. Books or KID scholastic or Highlighter).
- Either I or the parent(s) bring in a birthday "treat" (ie: chips, cheese doodles, fruit, cookies, muffins, cupcakes, etc).
- Journal assignment for the days will be to write 3 things that he/she likes about the birthday boy/girl.
- The birthday boy/girl gets one free homework pass on a subject of their choice.
- They are able to pick one prize from the 'birthday box'. (ie: balloons, "cheap" toys, stickers, etc...)
- We all sign a gigantic poster which the birthday boy/girl is able to take home.

As you can see I will take birthdays VERY seriously in my classroom :)

[Boxcar]

I let the child/family choose whether a birthday will be celebrated. Some of my shy students don't like the fuss and prefer to keep it quiet. A few families don't celebrate birthday at all - for religious (Jehovah's Witnesses) and personal reasons.

[hweber]

In fourth grade, we let the parents decide. I have the care bear birthday bear stuffed animal and the birthday child gets to have the bear all day. That is the extent of what I do. If a parent brings in cupcakes or something, that is fine. We also have a big contingent of Jehovah's Witnesses.

[herdgrad]

I also let the parent's decided. I give a certificate, birthday pencil, and homework pass. The school announces all birthdays on the morning annoucements. However, don't forget the summer birthdays!!! I try to do a "half" birthday with them.

[MissNinja]

Since I teach middle school, we don't do anything in particular to celebrate a person's birthday. Some kids do bring in cupcakes or cookies, however, and they share it with their classmates during lunch. I'm at a small school so it's easy to do that.

Kids always ask me for homework passes too! But I give them out if they are earned. Some students cannot afford to miss an assignment because the homework is practice for them, especially in math. So if they strive for a pass and earn it, then it's a different story. I just had problems with students who used homework passes on assignments they did not understand. I tried explaining to them that skipping the homework means they don't have to deal with it then, but they still won't know it for classwork or the test!

Anyway, this year I bought sticky letters and I think I'll put "HBD" and the initials of the student on my door window. It's really small so I spell the whole thing.

[dsmms]

Since I teach middle school, we don't do anything in particular to celebrate a person's birthday. Some kids do bring in cupcakes or cookies, however, and they share it with their classmates during lunch. I'm at a small school so it's easy to do that.

Kids always ask me for homework passes too! But I give them out if they are earned. Some students cannot afford to miss an assignment because the homework is practice for them, especially in math. So if they strive for a pass and earn it, then it's a different story. I just had problems with students who used homework passes on assignments they did not understand. I tried explaining to them that skipping the homework means they don't have to deal with it then, but they still won't know it for classwork or the test!

Anyway, this year I bought sticky letters and I think I'll put "HBD" and the initials of the student on my door window. It's really small so I spell the whole thing.

I agree! Perhaps you could offer bonus birthday points on an assignment of their choice. This way they can't skip the work, but bump it up a bit with 10 extra points. :yes:

[priyaanka]

Thanks for sharing all of your ideas!

I really appreciate your suggestions and comments. :waving:

[Mrs B]

I teach high school and my collaborative teacher and I came up with a goofy but fun idea to recognize birthdays. Between my CT and I, we have 4 small children; ages 7, 6, 4, and 3. We videoed our kids singing "Happy Birthday" and play it using a VCR hooked to my InFocus projector in my classroom. (Our kids were already friends through school and other activities, so they thought it was great to get together and sing.) Our students think our kids are cute and it helps build relationships between our students and ourselves.

[hweber]

Mrs. B - that is a cute idea. I never would have thought of that. I love the idea sharing here.

[Boxcar]

Awww... That is so cute! I also liked hearing about my teachers' lives outside of school.

I think I've always been interested in other people's stories, and it was a nice break from schoolwork!

[David]

i let the parents decide if they want the class to celebrate their child's birthday. I have a preference for cup cakes as I failed cutting cakes into 30 pieces when I was at university. I have 3 anaphalactic (how do you spell that word)kids who make wise choices about what they should and shouldn't eat.

[Ironmary]

For bdays in my room I have them posted in the room. We sing the bday song and I like to create a book for the bday student to take home. All kids in the class would do a picture of what they would like to give that student and below the sentence would read "If I could give _______ anything, I would give her/him a ___________"

I found this works great! And it's especially important not to forget the students who have bdays during the summer holidays!!

[herdgrad]

LOVE the book idea! I already have the wheels turning in my head about making a standard paper/form and cover. Also, I always do Happy 1/2 Birthday! for my summer birthdays. If their birthday is in June we celebrate in December, July is in January, and August is in February.

[hweber]

I too like the book idea, anything to get my kids writing.

[BG2SC]

I teach 7th grade...

When I did my "icebreakers" to start the year, I put all their birthdays on my desk calendar. On the day of their birthday (or the Friday before a weekend birthday), I simply put "Happy Birthday ____________" on my daily agenda that I freeze on the P-Board as the kids are entering the room, and give the birthday child candy when they come into the room.

I figure with multiple classes seeing the birthday message, at least a few kids who didn't know will pass him/her and say Happy Birthday, so that's already making a difference in their day.