For middle school, I used to have goody bags ready for them. Eventually, it was too tedious to do at the beginning of the year. Then I gave out candy, but I started to eat it myself if I had no other food in my room. Last year, I didn't do anything, but I had all birthdays posted still. Anyone do anything that works great? Or do I not do anything for 12-14 year olds?
For my 6th graders my first two years I gave them a Happy Birthday sticker, which they looked forward to and even reminded me if forgot, and a hershey bar. I bought enough hershey bars and the beginning of the year and kept them locked up and even though I love candy I managed not to eat them all. This past year, I only gave out the sticker and they seemed happy with that too.
I buy the big packs of goofy pencils at the Dollar Tree and make a big ceremony out of "The Birthday Pencil" and we all sing.
I don't do anything, but some teachers on the team do. If I know it is a child's birthday, I do wish them happy birthday. I used to have kids let me know when there was a birthday and I'd have all the kids in the cafeteria sing Happy Birthday. I stopped that when the kids started screaming the song and didn't stop when I warned them about that.
It's kind of a tradition at our school that girls get a dollar on their birthday and they wear it on a clip attached to their shirt. I don't know where it came from or why it's girls-only, but that's what we do.
I post a birthday card once a month (plus a 2nd in June for the "summer babies") in my homeroom. Before we had compute access to the dates, I just passed around a sign in sheet on the first day.
We're a small campus, so we post birthday's on our online calendar (that only the students and teachers can see). Other than that, we don't do a thing. I usually give the student a panda sticker, though.
I post a monthly happenings list (club meetings, games, important due dates) and I include birthdays on the list.
I would write "Happy Birthday So and So!" on the board really big in bright chalk. Then accent it with some squiggles and balloons. I would leave it up for the whole day, so everyone knew it was their birthday. They seemed to enjoy it
I like the idea of just recognizing them! I'll be sure to do that and be consistent with it. I do always have their birthdays on display in the classroom on a poster, but I'll write it on the board or something. I have birthday postcard things left, which I can give them with a cool pen, pencil, or stickers. Thanks everyone!
That's a really cute idea. My kids love the chance to write on the board and leave messages for their friends in my other classes, so a birthday message for everyone to see would go over really well.
We use PowerSchool for grades at my school, and I like how the gradebook gives you a notification when it's a student's birthday. I don't do anything special, but I do say happy birthday to them when they are walking into class. My friend across the hall writes students' birthdays on a calendar she has posted on one of her bulletin boards.
We sang happy birthday after morning announcements, I kept a small birthday chart, and the student could bring in goodies to share - for either morning or after lunch.
I would say give pencils... They always seem to need them. An how fun to have silly pencil!!! I know I gave pencils one year for Halloween... happened to find those triangular pencils that were black with different colors when you sharpen... The kids went crazy for them and I taught Elem!!!
I give students a birthday card - signed by all their friends - and their favorite candy. It's funny to see how third graders handle b-day cards vs first graders. My first graders would sign their names only but would try to make them "fancy." And my third graders would write a short sentence about the b-day student. Current Catalog has pretty good deals on kids' b-day cards.
I give the students a homework pass. They can use it that night or whenever. They love it and look forward to it and it doesn't cost me anything!
In MS, I allow the class to sing to the child and I will join in, really off-key and off-pitch. But I do this only for my homeroom students, during homeroom. And, I do not do this for every child - only the ones who I knew it was their birthday because they personally reminded. I don't bother keeping track of every child's birthday.
