Super Simple Ways to Celebrate Student Birthdays

I enjoy celebrating student birthdays in my classroom! Even as an interventionist, I still do. It is not required by my school, but I feel it is very meaningful to the student to be recognized on their special day.

When I was a classroom teacher, one of the things I did was to have the birthday student get to be the teacher assistant for the day. That is what I had in place instead of classroom jobs. The teacher assistant, TA, for the day was the line leader, paper passer, and the one selected first for any errands/jobs that needed done. My students loved to be TA!

We, also, would sing “Happy Birthday” or play the GoNoodle version of “Happy Birthday” on the Promethean Board. I usually would play this during during a brain break. Furthermore, the birthday student was recognized during our morning meeting with their name and pic being on the morning message and receiving their birthday crown. I would, also, let them share how they were going to celebrate their birthday at home.

Another thing I have seen done is for the birthday student to have a special place to sit for the day. It may be a sign hung on their chair or another space in the classroom with a special chair. The birthday student will have a basket with fancy tools to use for the day like colored pens, smelly markers, glitter crayons, etc.

Now, as an interventionist, I pull my students out of their classroom, so I don’t do as much. I let the classroom teacher do their birthday thing and when the birthday student is with me, I’ll let the student have a minute or two to share their plans and then give the student a book that I have written a birthday message inside the front cover. The books I give out are ones that I have gotten for free or paid very little for, so giving a book to each student is low cost. If you want to read more about how to get books on a budget, read my post on that here.

Here are some other low or no cost gifts you can give!

• Birthday Book- Have each student write and illustrate a page to be included in this book! You can, also, make a page for the book! Make a cover for the book. You can already have these made ahead of time. Then, put the book together either, simply, by stapling or using a book binder to attach a plastic binding and give to the student! This was a gift I received from a class when I was in elementary school. I treasured it and looked at it often!
• Homework Pass- Give out a pass for a student to get out of a homework assignment. These always go over well!
• Birthday Cup- Get a cup with one of those bubble lids and place small items in it for the student, such as a pen/pencil, blowpop, bendy straw, temporary tattoos, etc.
• Certificate with a Birthday Pencil- You can create, print, or purchase birthday certificates to give to your students. Then, attach a birthday pencil to it. Click here for a link to print a birthday certificate for free from Prekinders.com.
• Birthday Box- I had one of these, but now it is just called the Prize Box! The box is filled with small trinkets and the students get to choose one item out of the box on their birthday.
• Birthday Crown- I mentioned this one above, but here is a way to make a simple crown if you don’t want to purchase them. I bought a fun border from the Dollar Tree to make the band. Then, I cut out the top part from construction paper. I stapled the top to the border and wrote “Happy number Birthday student name!” Last, I stapled the border together to fit the student’s head.

Celebrating student birthdays in the classroom is not only meaningful to the birthday student, but it, also, continues to build a relationship with that student and further creates a caring community in your classroom. Read more about the importance of building realtionships with your students in this post.

I look forward to hearing about which one of these ideas you want to try or you can add to the list in the comments below.