Happy Summer Birthday!
Posted by Hope Spencer on 10 Jul 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Routines, Holiday and Seasonal
My birthday is coming up soon! I have to say, having a summer birthday never really bothered me. I had friends who felt a bit cheated about not being able to celebrate their birthdays at school, but I guess I didn’t notice it. I always had a good time having a birthday party with my grandparents or with other relatives we were visiting during the summer. My little sister’s birthday was in the summer too, three weeks before mine, so I guess that helped me love a summer birthday. But, now that I think about it, it might have been fun to have my mother bring cupcakes to school on my special day just once.
In my classroom, I was careful to make a fuss over students with summer birthdays. Some years we celebrated half-birthdays. Other years, I asked students to choose a day that was special to them and we celebrated that day.
To celebrate, we sang to the birthday child and, depending on the grade I was teaching, decorated his chair, made a card in his honor, or wrote a poem for him. After all, the best part of a birthday, no matter what day it’s celebrated, is making the birthday person feel special.
Here’s hoping all of your birthdays are celebrated in style!
Hope
Congratulations to Kathy Dobbs, director of Kathy’s Family Daycare in Simi Valley, CA. She is the winner of a copy of The Big Book of Monthly Ideas (Pre-K) in our weekly blog drawing.
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43 Responses to “Happy Summer Birthday!”
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More Comments Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] Show All Comments
I always like to recognize my student’s birthdays, even the ones who have summer birthdays. My assistant and I have a bag that slips over the birthday child’s chair with decorations and Happy Birthday written on it. We all sing to that child and give them a card with a birthday pencil. Then we let the child pick a gift from the birthday box, which they all love to do. For summer birthdays, we pick a day toward the end of the school year, put the birthday bag over the child’s chair, and also give them the birthday card, pencil and let them pick a gift from the birthday box. This way, summer birthdays are not forgotten, and they are surprised at the same time!
Oh my gosh! I completely forgot summer birthdays
I think I will try the half birthdays next year. Oh, and I love the idea about finding something special on each student’s birthday. Thanks for the great ideas!
I admit that while I have planned to celebrate summer birthdays in my classroom, I haven’t actually followed through. The last weeks of school are so busy for us with special programs, so non-essentials fall by the wayside. But reading this, I’m reminded that summer birthdays are essentials too. I should know, one of my own children has a summer birthday and loved when her teachers acknowledged it.
This year I will definitely plan ahead to ensure we do get those summer birthdays celebrated. Thanks for the reminder!
I send a note home to the parents about a month before school is out and ask them if they would like to celebrate early. Most love the idea so we celebrate each birthday during the last few weeks of school. It is a great break during assessments.
MY SUMMER BIRTH DAY FALLS ON THE 9TH OF DECEMBER.
I AM ALWYS ANXIOUS TO CELEBRATING THIS HAPIEST MOMENT IN MY LIFETIME. YOU CANT IMMAGINE PEOPLE.
With a July 3rd birthday, parties were always tough. Most friends were either away, or entertaining company, and “summer birthdays’ were not focused upon in school. But, there was a library aide who made each of us know that our births had a pace in history. She had 12 marble notebooks- each labeled with a month of the year. Each notebook was then labeled with the dates of the month (1,2,3,etc.), skipping a page (or two?) between each date. As she’d come across interesting facts, author birthdays, special celebrations, and other tidbit related to a date (and this was LONG before computers made that easy!), she’d enter it on the matching page. In kindergarten, she entered every new student’s birthday, and ensured that any new student through the years added theirs. On the first day back to school after Christmas break each year, she’d have a birthday celebration for all of us. The marble notebooks would come out, and we’d all explore our birthdays as we munched on some sort of trail mix that she used to concoct. . The result? Each of us felt not only celebrated, but deeply connected to our past, present, and future. Even today, when July 3rd rolls around, I remember that on my birthday: the three-day Battle of Gettysburg ended, Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec. I’ll always remember that Algeria had once been ruled by the French, because I learned they gained independence on July 3, 1962. I connected with George Washington, since he took over the Continental Army on my birthday (back in 1775). I also shared my birthday with “Bob” (a boy a grade ahead of me, Michael Cole (of “Mod Squad” fame, which was a highly popular TV show at the time), George M. Cohan, and Franz Kafka, and Casey Cox (a NY Yankee at the time).
Once the books were started, I imagine they were easy to add to. But beyond the book, I felt connected as if by invisible thread to the people and events that lined “my” page. I often think about that teacher, and the way she made me feel as if my birthday was every bit as important to her as the other events that shared the JULY 3 page.
I also have a summer birthday end of June. My daughter has an early June birthday and this past school year ended 2 days after her birthday so she got to have cupcakes at school. This was so much fun for her because usually the school year ends the day before her birthday. Fortunately for me having a home child care everyone enjoys their special birthday celebration. No matter how old we get birthdays are the one day we want to feel the most special.