A Success Story from 2021...
It only took me 23 years of teaching, but I have FINALLY found a way to recognize student birthdays that isn't really difficult for me!
For years, I've been secretly jealous of those teachers who could keep up with a birthday bulletin board or some other method to recognize student birthdays, but I've just never been that person - until now!
As part of one of this summer's #Made4Math posts, I made these little flags with some free clipart and a cute font and printed them on colored paper.
Then, I set about to make this user friendly - I printed off enough flags to make it through the semester and cut them out. I put the supplies in a "Birthday Pencil" tub right inside my closet and I printed off a monthly calendar. Just before school started, I went through and wrote every student's name on the calendar on their birthday. This calendar is on my desk in a clear folder so I can see the current month at all times. Having everything ready to go was key to making this work for me.
Each Friday afternoon, I get my birthday pencil tub out of my closet where I have all of the pencils and pre-cut flags stored and I make the following week's pencils (and right now, the half-birthday pencils too for my summer birthdays). On the back of the flag, I write the student's name, a Happy Birthday greeting, the date of their birthday / half-birthday, and the hour they are in and stack them on top of the calendar in order of the week. That way, they are always on my desk as a visual reminder to give them out.
So far, I've only made one error - I tried to give a student his pencil in September and he gave it back and said, "Sorry, Mrs. T - my birthday's next month, so hold on to this until then!" But overall, the kids have loved getting a little gift on their birthday and it's been a super easy way to show the kiddos that I care about them.
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