BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

*My Personal Routine: I personally like to greet the "birthday child" at the door that morning by saying, "Happy Birthday," then placing a crown on his/her head.  Crowns don't have to be the store-bought kind, and are super easy to make: Cut a piece of the larger sized construction paper in half lengthwise.  Then simply cut zig-zags across the top.  Decorate it with stickers, stars, sequins, etc.  Usually, the child's mom sends a special snack.  At snacktime, we sing to him/her and clap the same number of times as their "new birthday age" then I like to hug them that many times.
*Ice Cream Cone Game: Create a cone from posterboard.  Let children see how many scoops (styrofoam balls) they can get into the cone without one falling out.
*Scoops: Let children practice using a real ice cream scoop in the sand table.
*Birthday Cake: I love this: Get a piece of thick styrofoam (shaped like a cake).  As a morning activity, allow children to poke tiny birthday candles into the cake and decorate it using collage materials but not gluing anything onto the cake.  Rather, they can take turns decorating the cake by laying the items on top of the styrofoam.  The children love it.  I remember a little boy who used yarn for frosting.  I watched as he simply looped it round and round the candles as if drizzling it on.  Always keep your eyes open for new "Styrofoam cake" chunks so you'll have a fresh new one when you need it for a birthday (after awhile, the holes made from the candles wear out and get too big after being poked into the Styrofoam so many times by the children).

From Pat Howe in Charlotte, North Carolina:
Hey Stormie, I'm a Montessori preschool (3-6) teacher.  I really discourage "parties" and instead we celebrate the child's special day a little more calmly.  We light a candle (discussing that only grown-ups light candles) and place it in the center of our ellipse (or circle) and we talk about how the candle represents the sun.  We then discuss the fact that it takes one year for the earth to orbit the sun.  Then the child, while holding a globe (we talk about the globe being a "model" of the earth) "orbits" the candle, one time for each year of their age.  As the child goes around each year, the teacher describes the activities the child was probably doing at each milestone ("When the earth had gone around the sun 3 times, Caleb was learning all his sounds and how to dress himself...etc").  Once all the years have been done, we congratulate the child, clapping out his age.  Then, the b'day child kneels and with "a stretched out arm" uses a candle snuffer to extinguish the flame.  Everyone claps and
then sometimes we read "On the Day You Were Born."  Anyway, as you can see, there are multiple opportunities for language, science, math, practical life, sensorial, and cultural lessons.  A few days in advance of the birthday, either we or the parents put together a poster as a time line, showing pics of the child at newborn, 1 yr. etc.  Having some info like where they were born etc. helps with the narration during the b'day celebration.
Variation: From Kim Knecht, St. Michael, Alaska
I have the Birthday student hold the globe (inflatable) and walk around the "sun" (a large paper sun I've made at the beginning of the year) for each year.  I find this is a great tradition in our class.

From Sandy, Children's World Learning Center, Golden, Colorado:
Because teachers never throw away anything (or at least they shouldn't), they usually have old bulletin board borders left over.  I take these and cut them to the size of the birthday child's head and staple together to make birthday crowns.

From Darlene, Head Start Teacher:
I make a simple crown for the birthday child AND I have a pretend birthday cake cut out, laminated, and Velcroed onto a lap size dry erase board.  There is a strip of velcro above the cake for the child to count out the correct number of pretend candles to velcro above the cake.  Then we sing "Happy Birthday."
 
I also have a "Birthday Backpack" that I send home with the "birthday" child on the appropriate day.  (Actually, I have 2 .... just in case we have multiple birthdays!)  In advance, I bought a clear backpack and a large birthday gift bag at the local dollar store.  I cut the gift bag apart and cut it to the size of the front of the backpack's outer front section.  I typed out "BIRTHDAY BACKPACK" on my computer, and then glued it to the front of the gift bag piece.  I laminated it then inserted it into the backpack front.  Inside, I placed a large stuffed Clifford (used my Scholastic book club points to receive him), a Clifford Birthday Book, a computer made birthday card for the child (with a Clifford sticker on the front), and lastly, I added an inexpensive activity book for the child to keep as a gift (3 for a $1 at the local drug store).  Each child gets to take the backpack home for the night and return it the next day.  I also laminated an instruction sheet that stays in the bag telling parents what gets returned and what their child may keep.  This has been a HUGE success!  EVERYONE loves it!

From R. Howe, Kentucky:
We light a candle and sing "Happy Birthday," and we always talk about who is supposed to light the candle and that children never play with lighters or matches and if they find them, they are to tell a grown-up.  I buy several gifts from a Dollar Store and place them in a classroom "birthday bag."  The birthday child loves to reach in and pick out a gift.

From Marcie, Head Start, Wright County, Minnesota:
I have a collection of birthday books such as "Clifford's Birthday" and many others.  I place them in a "Birthday Present" bag, and on a child's birthday, s/he chooses a story from the bag for me to read to the class at Circle Time.  When the story is finished, we sing "Happy Birthday" to the child.

What a truly fabulous idea from Lili, in Mexico City:
Birthday Folder: In my classroom, when a child has a birthday, in addition to the crown s/he gets to wear all day and take home, I do this: After cake and ice cream, I have the children put their heads down and really "think" of what they would give the "birthday child" if they could give him/her something (suggestions only if needed might be a day at the zoo or in the park, a toy, pet, balloon, kite, party, whatever!).  I then give them a piece of paper for drawing their own version of the gifts they would give.  I also take a digital camera photo of the birthday child with his friends and print it out.  I place the photo and the children's drawings in a file folder (that has a handful of balloons I printed out on the front).  The birthday child loves taking this home to keep and look at over and over again!

From Cecilia, in Canada:
Birthday Pinata: On the morning of the birthday, I give my class a big paper bag to decorate with tissue paper as a group project (it's a "present" bag).  I then punch holes in the bottom of the bag, one in each side, and I get a strong cord or yarn or
something that they can pull and break the bottom.  When the pinata is dry, I pour goodies into it.  Then later, for gross motor, we break the pinata.  The children love and enjoy this, and I'm so proud to know they've had a wonderful "birthday" day!

From Yvonne:
Puppet: I have a birthday puppet.  Her name is "Birthday Betty."  She is a dressed-up sock puppet that lives in a box decorated like a present.  I tell the children to knock on her box and tell her to come out.  She then comes out (I am her voice) and talks to the birthday child.  She then asks the birthday child how old they are and that is how many kisses s/he gets from Birthday Betty.  It has been wonderful sharing the children's birthdays like this!!!  Have lots of fun with it!

From Sonia Becak:
Birthday Box: Stormie, we have a birthday box.  In it, I keep birthday books and special center materials: Lakeshore cakes w/ candles, birthday leftovers for Play Kitchen Center (like plates, cups and napkins, muffin tin, birthday candles), 1/4 sheets of poster board and art supplies for a class birthday card (children decorate and print names or thumbprints), and playdough.  The birthday child gets to make a special birthday "bottle" which is a plastic soda bottle filled with small trinkets in colored water.  The child adds the same number of items to the colored water as his age.  For example, if he's 5, he selects 5 stars, 5 beads, 5 sparkly circles, 5 shakes of glitter, and so on.  I seal the bottle closed with hot glue and add a ribbon.  I also have a felt vest the birthday child decorates with felt pieces of their choice and wears for the day.  Bithdays are a big deal in my class because many of my children come from low income families and have never had much of a birthday celebration.

From Bonnie H.:
Birthday Book: I make a birthday book which has been a big hit.  I print "Happy Birthday," the year and school name on the first page.  I place a photo (that I took) of the child in the middle of the page.  Each child in the class then has his/her own page in the book where they create a picture of what they would like to give the birthday child.  I print their words on the page as they tell me about it.

Favorite Books to read when there's a birthday:
From Stormie:
*Happy Birthday, Moon, by Frank Asch: A little bear wants to give the moon a birthday present so he climbs high into the mountains where he can get closer to the moon and ask him when his birthday is.  He talks to the moon and the moon answers him (in the voice of the little bear's echo).  I really love this darling story!
*Don't Wake Up Mamma! by Eileen Christelow: This is a "Five Little Monkeys" story: This time, the monkeys bake Mamma a birthday cake while she's asleep.
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