Our director of our school makes each child feel special on his/her birthday with a friendly visit from the Mail Carrier. She has a Mail Carrier puppet on her hand and she brings in a mailbox with birthday mail for the birthday child. She interacts with all the children trying to figure out if it's a holiday the class is celebrating or a birthday. She'll start singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas," then all the kids yell out no, then she'll talk about Easter and the kids will shout out no, etc. The whole class gets a big kick out of it and the birtiday child is always laughing. The birthday child gets a card and stickers from the Mail Carrier. I have always loved this tradition.
We are looking at doing birthday pics with the principal so the kids can take it home. We get the reaction when we have pizza parties for classrooms that win certain challenges, but we dont stop rewarding others for a job well done. I think its wrong for kids not being able to celebrate a birthday with their classmates. I know when i invite them to a party they dont show up even when i tell them not to bring presents just come and have fun noone ever shows up.
Thanks! Great ideas to make kids feel special. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the little stuff from Oriental Trading simply because we get so much of it from prize boxes or what-have-you in the classroom (my son is 1st grade so rewards seem to be big) and they last for a very short time before I throw them out. Seems like a waste with limited resources. But I do know the kids love them!
You may consider checking the Oriental Trading catalog. They have all sorts of small things that you can buy in bulk. Maybe you could send home a small baggie of candies. You could also get different items in bulk to put in a birthday bin. The student would get to pick an item for their birthday.
What a great idea to help each child feel special on their birthday, I may have to check into this with our group. Thanks for sharing this idea!
Hi with a little phone time you could call around for small donations from local businesses and make up little "gift bags".small trinkets, coupons for restaurants, etc.
We did this and some items we got were- free movie rental from hollywood video, free frostee from wendys coupon, free kids meal coupon from chilis, magnets and pencils from local businesses, bookmarks from local library, etc. then make a label that says happy birthday and stick it on a sandwich baggie and fill it with what you get!
Just remember whatever they get is exciting to them!
Have fun, hope this helps, Beth
