Monday Made It - Birthday Bags

Getting back into the swing of things, I've been working on setting up my classroom. Of course, the first year (in five!) that I haven't had to change rooms, I decide to switch my theme! Last year I had a tropical theme and decided that I wanted to go more simplistic and chic - teal & lime green. More pictures of my classroom to follow.

One thing that I did accomplish this week are my Birthday Bags. This is something that I picked up from somewhere along the way and have been doing for a few years. Personally, I like birthdays! I also want to celebrate my students when it is their birthday, but I find that if I don't have something ready to give to them on their special day, then I forget. 

At the beginning of the year, I put together a brown bag for each student that has a couple of inexpensive "treats" inside. Each year it varies depending on what I am able to gather, but I try to make it simple, cheap, and easy.

After searching the isles of the Dollar Tree, this year I put a mechanical pencil (because I am SO tired of students getting up a thousand times a day to sharpen their pencils!), robot eraser, free homework coupon, and a celebration horn (just for fun!). In past years, I've put Scholastic books that I've saved throughout the year into the bags and students seemed to like that; I also usually put some piece of candy, but this year I was trying to be healthier by not including sweets. Here is a copy of the homework coupon I made:

Once all the bags are put together, I write the students' name and birth date on the outside of the bag. This year, I wanted to match my theme, so I created a half-sheet that went on the outside.

Finally, when all the pieces are put together, I staple them onto one of my walls so that I have a daily reminder of each student's birthday. The conversation on the first day is usually buzzing about what is inside the bag and students swarm the first birthday kid as they open their bag to see what is waiting inside. Here is what my wall looks like this year:

The Happy Birthday banner is something else that I made this week using my digital scrapbooking software, some ribbon, and a hot glue gun! I just printed a 4x6 photo with the colors and letter I wanted, then trimmed it into the flag shape.

I'm very pleased with the way that my birthday bags turned out the year! :o)

~Ashley