Birthday Writing Activity: Easy Ways to Celebrate Your Students

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My Favorite Birthday Ideas

With my birthday coming up this Sunday, I’ve been thinking about birthday celebrations and a special birthday writing activity I used in my classroom. Now, I’m not nearly as excited about celebrating my own birthday as I get older, but celebrating birthdays in the classroom? I LOVED it!

Classroom birthdays were always SO MUCH FUN! Over the years, I tried all sorts of ways to make students feel special on their big day. Some traditions lasted a year or two, while others became a regular part of our classroom celebrations. And one, in particular, was so special that former students still talk about it years later!

From simple birthday bracelets and special read-alouds to homemade birthday books and a classroom birthday calendar, there were lots of ways to celebrate without going overboard.

A Few Simple Birthday Activities

Every birthday deserves a little celebration!

Over the years, I tried different ways to celebrate student birthdays. At one point, students created birthday posters to share with the class. For a while, students could donate a book to our classroom library in honor of their birthdays. And, of course, there were birthday treats brought in by families, although those became less common over the years because of allergies.

One thing I never did? Birthday crowns! Those always seemed like a big distraction to me, as if having a birthday wasn’t enough of a distraction already!

No matter what other activities we did, every child got a simple birthday bracelet and a song.

My favorite birthday tradition, and the one that really stuck, involved a book, some writing, and a keepsake that students could take home.

The Important Thing About You: Birthday Writing

I was introduced to The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown while student teaching in the early ’90s. The book is so simple and sweet, and its repetitive nature really appeals to young children. The book takes ordinary, everyday objects, such as a spoon or an apple, and explains what is important about each one. The predictable writing pattern is easy for students to recognize and eventually use in their own writing.

For example, students might write something like this about a pencil:

The important thing about a pencil is that you can write with it. It has an eraser so you can erase what you wrote. And you can sharpen it when it gets dull. But the most important thing about a pencil is that you can write with it.

There are so many ways to extend this book into classroom writing activities, but my favorite was using it to celebrate student birthdays.

Since my birthday falls near the beginning of the school year, I always used it as an opportunity to introduce the birthday writing activity. We practiced the writing pattern together so students would know what to do when we celebrated our first classroom birthday.

Interviewing and Writing about the Birthday Child

On each student’s birthday, we gathered as a class to ask the birthday child questions about their family, likes, dislikes, and favorite things. This gave everyone plenty of ideas for their writing and was great practice for asking questions! Early in the year, I recorded the answers on the board for students to use as a reference.

After our discussion, students returned to their seats to write. Using the template, they added the birthday child’s name and completed the writing prompt:

The important thing about _____ is _____.

At the beginning of the school year, the writing was often very simple. Students might write just one important thing about their classmate. But as the year went on and their writing skills developed, the birthday pages became longer and more detailed. By the end of the year, some were writing several sentences!

I always thought the children with birthdays toward the end of the school year got the best birthday books! 🙂

Once everyone finished writing, I collected the pages, put them together into a book, shared it with the class, and then sent it home with the birthday child. My students loved these books, and some returned years later to tell me they still had the book we made together in first grade!

Birthday Writing Activity Templates

If you’d like to try this tradition in your classroom, I created a set of The Important Book Birthday Writing Templates to make it easy.

The resource includes birthday writing pages, additional writing paper, and several class book covers. Just print the pages, have students write about their classmates, and put them together into a birthday book.

💚 Grab the Birthday Writing Templates! 

And while birthdays were my favorite way to use this activity, it also works for special classroom events, field trips, classroom visitors, or celebrating other members of your school community.

A Special Basket of Birthday Books

I kept a special basket of birthday-themed picture books in my classroom that only came out on birthdays. The birthday child got to choose a book from the basket for a special birthday read-aloud!

Some of the birthday books in my collection include:

Moira’s Birthday by Robert Munsch

The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle

Ten Rules of a Birthday Wish by Beth Ferry

Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday, Cupcake! by Terry Border

It’s My Bird-Day! by Mo Willems

The Worst Birthday Book in the Whole Entire World by Joey Acker

Froggy’s Birthday Wish by Jonathan London

Happy Birdday, Tacky! by Helen Lester

Some Birthday by Patricia Polacco

You certainly don’t need a huge collection to start this tradition. A few birthday books in a special basket are all you need!

Our Classroom Birthday Calendar

During my last few years of teaching, I added another birthday tradition that became one of my favorite classroom displays: a birthday calendar made with photos of the students!

I started by giving each student a large number representing the day of the month they were born. For example, if a student’s birthday was on the 26th, they received a large 26 to color. This was also a quick way to find out who actually knew when their birthday was!

Once everyone finished coloring, I grouped students by birthday month and took a photo of each group holding their numbers. I added the name of the month to each photo on my computer, printed them, and displayed all 12 photos on the classroom wall.

The finished calendar stayed up all year, making it easy for students to see whose birthday was coming up or which classmates shared their birthday month.

💚 Grab the FREE Numbers for your Birthday Calendar

Making Birthdays Special

Looking back, it was the little traditions that made classroom birthdays special. A birthday bracelet, a special read-aloud, a song, and a book filled with kind words from classmates.

Of all the birthday traditions I tried, The Important Book activity has stayed with me the most. Knowing that former students still have their birthday books years later makes me smile!