Just mention the word birthday and you get a super excited toddler or preschooler. Seriously, there is nothing like turning 3 or 4 in their lives. If we just mention the word, our 3 year olds get so excited, all telling me at once how old they will be, or what they want, or what kind of party. That means celebrating birthdays in the classroom is important. Super important! The key is keeping it simple and yet special. And that’s exactly how our toddler and preschool birthday celebrations are! Edited to add: Since this post was written, we’ve changed from displaying birthday crowns to hanging a banner. Scroll down towards the bottom of this post to find a free printable so you can make your own banner!
The Birthday Crowns
We have a plain white paper birthday crown ready for each child when school starts. These will be taken down to be painted and then put back on the wall with a label that reads the child’s name and birthdate. They are hung in chronological order starting with September and ending with August. (Our school starts in September.)
The first or second week of school, we have our toddlers and preschoolers paint their crowns.
I love how this personalizes each crown!
And then we wait. We wait for those magical birthday celebrations! And we keep letting each other know how old we will be.
The birthday child sits in a special birthday chair and we place the cake on a felt board. We then count how many candles will go on the cake, and they are placed on the board.
Here’s our first song (tune: On Top of Old Smokey): I honestly don’t recall where I found it, so I will give credit to this website, where I am finding it now. We then flip the felt board around to face the birthday child, and we sing the traditional birthday song.
And the whole class cheers the birthday person!
If we have children with food allergies, we make sure that the treat’s ingredients are safe for them.
Click on the photo below for 1 and 2 candles:
Click on the photo below for 3, 4, and 5 candles:
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