Birthday Celebrations In The Classroom
Birthdays are a BIG deal when you are a kid. Heck, for some adults they are an even BIGGER deal. Some schools have protocol on birthday celebrations and some do not. When I was in the classroom we ALWAYS celebrated each kids birthday. I’m going to share a few ways to make the birthday kiddo feel special AT SCHOOL on their birthday!
Typically, I would address the student’s birthday the day before. I would simply review a social story. You can grab this birthday celebration social story FOR FREE by clicking HERE!
I also usually check in with the familiy the day/week before to see if they would like me to celebrate the child’s birthday in the classroom as well as if they would like to send/contribute anything. Often times, I had the parents come in for the last 30 minutes of the day to help celebrate. After a year or two of teaching and getting to know my families I quickly learned that a lot of my student’s didn’t have the “traditional” birthday party with friends outside of school due to challenges. By inviting the birthday kiddo’s parents, they were able to celebrate with their child and their friends.
I also think it is important to provide communication opportunities for kiddos on someone’s birthday. Students can practice saying happy birthday, asking about age and offering gifts. This FREE communication book below is a perfect tool to help facilitate communication on birthdays in your classroom.
With birthdays, or any celebration in the classroom, comes a new set of expectations. One of my favorite ways to review expectations for celebrations in the classroom is through this simple social story and picture book. This story is a silly story about a birthday party that goes all wrong with a T. Rex shows up. The story teaches students to learn how NOT to act in a birthday party.
I’m going to share a few fun things I’ve seen other teachers do in their classroom to celebrate their students birthdays! Click on each image below for more details for each fun idea!
I also like to use Birthdays as a way to make our writing center fun for the day! Typically, on a student’s birthday I would use the writing center to make the student a birthday card. Breezy Special Ed has THE best birthday cards to make it a functional writing lesson.
Now, of course, with every birthday celebration comes some singing! I used to always project a video on my white board to help kiddos sing/dance along. This is my favorite video:
I also LOVE the idea of a fun sensory activity to celebrate a birthday. This sensory bin idea by pocket of preschool is a great way integrate some sensory fun on someone’s special day. Simply store it in a bin with a lid and only use on birthdays to keep it extra special!
Here are some fun things I used in my classroom to help make birthdays feel extra special! Birthday crown’s/hats are the GO TO fun thing to implement in the classroom as well as a simple birthday chair cover. All of these things can be re-used over the years. One of my favorite birthday goodies was a Melissa and Doug play cake. With this cake we practiced singing Happy Birthday, blowing out candles and serving cake. This was a perfect way to get around any food policies in the classroom but still celebrate!
Do you celebrate holidays in the classroom? If so, check out my holiday social story bundle. This bundle includes 27 holidays! Each holiday has a social story in 3 formats and everything comes in color and black/white. Use them three ways —-> Read it, Project it, Color it!
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