Classroom Birthday Celebrations - How do you do it?

Happy New Year Peachy People!

   It's 2017 and I always like to start off a new year with MY BIRTHDAY!! That's right, yesterday was my 47th biggest birthday yet. That other milestone is looming closer and closer every year. I'm already throwing out ideas for that big blowout. We'll see which one takes hold.

   Which brings me to my topic of conversation for today's post. How do you celebrate your students' birthdays? Do you make a big deal about it? Quietly give them a hug and move on?

  I've done a few things in the past, but nothing feels really special enough to make that one kid feel like today is the best day to come to school.

  Here are some of my past ideas:
*I have a large "Happy Birthday" sign that came with some bulletin board kit years ago that I break out and put on their desk before they arrive.

*I bought a stack of "Happy Birthday" postcards and on the day I pass one around the room for everyone to sign and then give it to that birthday student.

*Our school let's the kids come up and get a birthday ribbon on the morning news announcements.

*Give everyone a half sheet of computer paper and let them write out a message to the birthday student and then illustrate the page. We bind them all together for a birthday book.

*Our new principal has finally lifted the ten year ban on birthday cupcakes at our school. Parents are now free to bring in treats for the whole class. Those with allergies, I try to provide a different treat choice.

Yesterday I decorated my room with streamers and gave out party favors with a SpongeBob theme. The kids love telling me about Gary, the snail on that show. So I thought the theme was spot on. I told them we would be celebrating my birthday all week.

If you look back at the first picture on this post you'll see yellow balloons on the ceiling. I filled six of them with little slips of paper with a special prize. I told them that if we had a good day we would pop one and have the prize the next day.

I can celebrate my special day with the best of them, but I want to find some things to celebrate their special day. And maybe that doesn't mean a lot of work on my end.

I did some research online to find the answer. I found TeachJunkie's post with 9 easy suggestions. I like the one about the silly straws.

Realmomnutrition gave some ideas for a food-free way to celebrate. Her VIP for the week idea could help bring in more parents and improve communications.

If that isn't enough here's a Pinterest board with 1000+ ideas for celebrating student birthdays. That recycled crayon Lego mold looks so cool!

What would you try?

 

Building a Classroom Community during the Holidays!

Hey Y'all! It's Erin from The Elementary Darling. The holidays are upon us. I am so excited to spend some family time over Thanksgiving! During my Thanksgiving break, I always plan my December lessons and make a wishlist of items that I will need to complete crafts, snacks, or activities with my students.I send home my wishlist before December. Some may say that I over plan, but the holidays are crazy enough as it is. We MAP test and benchmark test in December. Add that to the crafts (that you strategically matched to your standards) and the excitement and it gets a little crazy in the classroom. So today, I am going to share my favorite idea to build your classroom community during the holidays!

With all of the business, my students started getting stress some of my friends needed a little reminder to be nice and thankful. I wanted to spread joy and love throughout my classroom while building our classroom community, because let's be honest, we work on this ALL.YEAR.LONG.

So I decided we would build our classroom community by writing nice things about our friends on our paper chain. TWO in ONE deal my friends! You get classroom decor AND kindness from students in one fell swoop.

We filled our room with these strips. Each day, the students would receive two pieces of paper. They were encouraged to write to different people each day, We filled them out in our "spare time" and I asked them to watch their friends to see all of the wonderful things that each of them were doing during the day. I read them and the kids loved hearing all of the fabulous things people were saying about them. I filled them out as well so that all of the students would have great things said about them.

Each afternoon, I would add the strips and the students would watch our chain grow and decorate our classroom. They loved it, and so did I. It really brought out all of those good Holiday Feelings. The best part is, you can do this for very little cost! You can use cut strips of construction paper. If you don't want to do that, you can get the ones that I used from Oriental Trading. They have some really cute ones here or the plain red and green ones here.

How do you build your classroom community during the holidays? Leave us a comment and let us know the wonderful things that you do in the classroom! Happy Holidays, Friends!

-Erin from The Elementary Darling

Digging Up New Ideas for "Cutting Up" Test Anxiety

April is filled with poetry, Earth Day activities, and springtime fun, but for many, it's also TESTING SEASON. I'm here to help you change your students' mindset about this dreaded time of year!

One of the worst parts about testing is the worry and anxiety that comes with it. Give all of your students a different colored small piece of paper - like a post-it or printer paper cut into smaller squares. Tell the students to write down anything they are stressed about when it comes to taking the test. Let them know that NO ONE will be reading these. This is their chance to just "get it all out." You can even write down your own to show the students that teachers have worries, too! 

They do not need to write their name on it, because the next step is to cut up that piece of paper into tiny pieces! Tell them as they cut, you want them to "cut up" the worries. Tell them now that their worries are destroyed, they have to do their best not to stress about those things anymore. 

Go around with a giant Ziploc bag and collect all of their worries. You can write something encouraging on the bag, and then hang it on the board as a reminder during testing:

Each day before you start the test, shake the bag and remind them, "you cut up all your worries, so if you're stressed, let it go. Do the best that you can, it's all you can do!" Treat the test as a way for them to show everything they know. Remind them they are showing you how smart they are each day!

Once all of your testing is over, your students might be wondering what you are going to do with all that "confetti." Well, celebrate of course! Walk around and let each student grab a handful. Get in a clustered group, and throw that confetti!

Your students will love it! I suggest waiting until the very end of the day to do it. Ha! 

Of course, then it will need to be cleaned up, but if your students are anything like mine were, they get just as excited to clean as they do to throw it!

For more fun ideas like this one, follow my Classroom Ideas board on Pinterest!

Follow Ideas By Jivey's board Classroom Ideas on Pinterest.

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