Birthday’s are a big deal for children. Here are some cost-effective ways to celebrate student birthdays and make their day a little more special at school.
As we begin the new year, we want to take some time to recognize our students’ special day. I thought I would reach out to Zoe at PartiesUniverse.com. Zoe is a professional party planner and she has some great tips for celebrating birthdays in the classroom. It’s also my first guest post!
Student Birthdays: An Extra Special Day
Birthdays are an exciting time for so many kids. They’re a lovely opportunity to mark growing up and give the children an opportunity to feel special.
As well as kids who will associate birthdays with celebrations and love, there may be kids in the classroom who don’t get to feel quite so special in their family environment. Celebrating their birthday and who they are in the classroom can help develop confidence and bring a spark of magic to the occasion!
Inexpensive Ways to Celebrate Student Birthdays
Celebrating student birthdays and making them feel special doesn’t need to cost money! That’s why we curated the 5 top tips for how to celebrate student birthdays in a meaningful way in class for free or for very cheap!
1. Celebrate Student Birthdays With A Birthday Throne!
This involves making kids feel special by physically giving them a different space to sit. You can have a special chair throne at their table or you can let them sit on that chair while other kids sit on a carpet depending on age.
You can decorate their chair with some gold, silver or sparkly fabric ties in a sash around the backrest. Alternatively, you can cut some yellow card into a crown shape and sticky tape it to the chair- anything that marks it out from the rest.
2. Let them make a birthday wish!
This trick will add some magic to the birthday kids’ day! Put on a short clip of some sparkly magic background music, and let the birthday child make a wish! While they are doing so, all the other children wave their fingers in the direction of the birthday child, sprinkling magic wish powers on them to help their wish come true. This is a lovely, give-and-take dynamic that all the kids will be allowed to experience over the year!
Let the children add their candles to a big wall display group birthday cake! Each child gets a specialised birthday candle that goes up on a display on top of a giant birthday cake coloured paper cut out!
Putting up the candle can be part of the birthday ceremony and other kids can clap as each candle is added- it will create a lovely atmosphere. All you need for this activity is coloured paper- that schools are already likely to have in a store or craft cupboard.
3. Celebrate Student Birthdays by Spreading the Goodwill!
Marble donations! Over the course of the year, you might have different special causes that children can donate to with marbles. With coming of age, it’s nice to add some appreciation and lessons in goodwill.
Each child can get a marble or token for their birthday that they can choose to put into one charity jar. For instance, you could have 3: one for animal rescue, one for tree conservation and one for cleaning plastic out of the ocean. A
t the end of the year, you can have a bake sale or some other fun fundraiser and the process can be split between the charities according to how many marbles are in each jar!
4. Team game spirit!
It’s nice to join together and do a group activity to celebrate someone’s birthday. A great way to do this is to allow the child to select a party game that can be played either that afternoon or on the next Friday when there is free time.
These classic party games can involve musical statues, what’s the time Mr wolf, grandmothers footsteps, duck duck goose, or bigger groups games like parachute play or dodgeball!
5. Decorations
Two or 3 party decorations can transform a space, we suggest simple, easy and durable options such as birthday party fans that are quick to put up! This will make a room feel special.
6. Special disco song!
Depending on the age of the children, you can let the birthday child choose their favourite pop song and all the kids can have a mini disco. If your school has resources and allows it- you can use disco lights or have bubbles for the kids to play with on the ‘dancefloor’!
You can also project silent fireworks display on the whiteboards- or a video of disco lights to add atmosphere!
7. Celebrate Student Birthdays With A Little Birthday Speech!
We suggest the teacher give a little celebratory speech for each child on their birthday, where they name 3 special qualities that child has and explains why they are special. These could even be written on a birthday card presented to the child.
This is about showing how the child is valued and what they are appreciated for. Over the course of the year, the whole class will hear these speeches which will reinforce how each child is unique and an equally special part of the group.
As the teacher, you will know what best suits your class, and hopefully, some of these suggestions will strike a perfect balance of a special celebration with low preparation and simplicity!
Don’t Forget to Celebrate Student Birthdays in Summer!
Remember, find a month in the year when you can celebrate student birthdays for kids’ with summer birthdays! This can either be in July before school’s out, or on the day that marks their half birthday, so sometime in January or February.
Conclusion: Celebrate Student Birthdays On A Budget!
I hope you enjoyed this guest post! I think it’s important to celebrate student birthdays, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Zoe has some really great tips for making birthdays a little more special. In my area, not all my students have the chance to celebrate so making their day at school a little more special is important to me. Have a wonderful school year! If you need classroom tips, check out this post on classroom management tips!
About Zoe
Zoe runs partiesuniverse.com, a blog with heaps of ideas for budget-friendly kids’ parties. She has many ideas with themes ranging from outer space, dinosaurs, princesses, mermaids, pirates, pop stars, Disney movies and loads more! Each theme has suggestions for games, activities, decorations and top tips to make the day a simple, roaring success!
Zoe used to work as a professional kids’ party planner and now loves sharing her tried and tested tips as well as developing creative and magical ideas for themed parties which she shares for free on her site!
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