How I Celebrate Birthdays In My Classroom

 Good afternoon! Today I'd like to share how I celebrate birthdays in my classroom. Disclaimer: it takes a lot of prep, and admittedly cost quite a bit. That said, I feel it successfully meets my goal. My goal: I love to recognize people's birthdays and make them feel seen, valued, and bring them joy on their special day. 

In my classroom, I hand-draw (since the banners I bought would disappear due to some misunderstandings about recycling them rather than taking them home each birthday, and I could not afford to buy one for every birthday) a birthday banner that reads "Feliz Cumpleaños, [Student's Name]!" with markers on construction paper. I tape that to their desk along with a gift. The gift is a coffee-looking cup filled with confetti or grass, a desert sticker, and a special lava pen. I tie a ribbon to the top of the pen, which sticks out like a straw. I try to make the ribbon, pen, and sticker all the student's favorite color (which I know from a form they fill out on the first day of school). I buy the supplies in bulk from Amazon. After the initial work it takes to prepare the cups, it is really simple to set this up each birthday.

I also use Google Slides each day, so on the warm up slide they all see at the start of class, I feature a cat throwing confetti on the right side where I list reminders, and write "Today is [student's name] birthday!" 

Lastly, at the end of the month, I celebrate all of the birthdays from that month by putting their names on the board with their favorite colors (and maybe even characters), put up a balloon arch with their favorite colors combined, and set out treats. The Google Slides on the board might say something like "In honor of our January birthdays (name, name, name, and name) you can help yourself to a treat on the table!" We do Friday prizes each week anyway where students have the option of choosing food, so this falls on a Friday and basically is our regular prize day with an extra treat, or treats in place of non-edible prizes, along with that extra recognition. 

If you are an educator, I hope you find this inspiring or helpful in some way!

Blessings,

Lauryn 

Halloween English Lessons & Classroom Halloween Party, 2025

 Hello, here is yet another class party I would like to share from last semester. Halloween fell on a school day, so I celebrated with a class Halloween party that incorporated their class projects from the week. 

One project, which I saw on TPT, is making synonym/antonym gravestones and ghosts. I found some free gravestones to print. They had to write their choice word with five synonyms on the front, followed by five antonyms on the back. They could research synonyms and antonyms on Google. That was completed after an introduction to synonyms and antonyms on the Monday prior, so I drew grass and made a graveyard/ghost display.

The other assignment that ended up taking all week or longer was a symbolism mask assignment. Students were to draw ten images on one side of their mask designs that each symbolized something about them (what they believe, love, the hobbies they do, their personality, anything). On the other side, they were to write out ten "I am..." statements to describe themselves, applying repetition and more specifically, anaphora. On Halloween day they all got to 'dress up' and we did a class photo in each class featuring everyone in their masks. 

I planned several Halloween-inspired English games as well. One was to design a pumpkin on paper that clearly included symbolism and was themed around a particular book, character, or movie. Another used charts and involved rolling die to prompt a scary creative story. My favorite was where they worked in pairs with whiteboards. One partner had to describe a monster with as many adjectives as possible while the other partner had to draw it. They had five minutes and had to face away from each other until the drawing was done, then everyone revealed their masterpieces and partners swapped roles. Examples of some of these activities are shown below.

As far as the decorations go, I got the spiderwebs, spider dish, and balloons from Dollar Tree. I cut some paper plates into hexagons to look more web-like, too. The treats came from Aldi and a dollar store. 

Thank you for visiting, I hope you find this helpful! 

-Lauryn 

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Classroom Party

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone is safe and warm! Today I have lots of posts to share (if I do not lose internet), starting with this classroom Charlie Brown Thanksgiving party, themed around the movie "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving". We did not watch the movie in class, and it was honestly in no way connected to what we were studying. While Schulz's "Peanuts" comics and the classic Charlie Brown movies hold a dear place in my heart, I chose this theme because several students doodled pictures of Snoopy throughout the semester and seemed to like it. Plus, I have always wanted to have a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast with popcorn, pretzels, and toast with toppings (which I bought from Aldi), and jelly beans (which I forgot to buy for my class). I bought honey, peanut butter, Nutella (which was the most popular), and cinnamon sugar as topping options. I took my family's toaster for the day. The balloons were from Dollar Tree, and I doodled a picture on the board with Expo markers the night before. I planned out group station-type activities to do before each feast, so I put the desks in a circle. To make a mini tablecloth for each desk, I cut some regular-sized tablecloths from Walmart into about eight rectangles each.

I hope you enjoyed!

Blessings, 

Lauryn 

Fairytale/Book-Themed Art Classroom Tour

 Hey guys, today I have a few photos to share of my easy fairytale book-aesthetic art classroom with an overview of how I made some of the decorations in case you want to make some, too. 

In the bathroom I hung a moss mirror, which I made by simply pulling moss out of our yard and hot-gluing it on. Surprisingly, it stayed green all semester. I used brown Dollar Tree packaging paper to cut out some of the banner and quote shapes, then drew on them with brown markers. The banner was made from old books and fabric strips I cut and tied into tassels (I had the fabric on hand). 

Behind my desk I hung up all of the papers and cards students gave me throughout the semester. On the opposite side by the white board, I created a "quote wall" where I hung up the wise words my students said. My students seemed to really enjoy contributing to the quote wall. I am definitely going to continue that next year. I was given vines for my birthday, so I pinned those around my whiteboard and stuck up golden cardboard stars I made for past events a long time. I have collected lots of fake plants over the years from gifts, sales, and such which I used in both the classroom and bathroom. The banner above my desk was made from thrift store yarn turned into tassels (you just wrap it around a book or something, tie the top and trim the bottom) and wooden Dollar Tree blocks I hot-glued between each tassel. I got pumpkins for later in the fall from a local store that sells new items for cheap, so they were like 10 cents each. I bought the string lights and lamp last year from Walmart and thrift stores. I originally decorated the window but ended up taking it all down. The sign on the door was a moss wreath from a thrift store I tied yellow fabric to. I cut out butterflies from an old book and hot glued them on, along with another brown paper banner. I did not make the bulletin board décor, a super creative and talented colleague designed and made that with a Cricut machine. 

I hope to share my Christmas décor soon (and yes, I already decorated on November 1st as is my routine). Thank you for stopping by! 

-Lauryn 

"Reach for the Stars" End of the Year Class Party + Student Gift Ideas

 Hello! Today I would like to share an end of the year class party I had (actually, three with the same decorations) with a "Reach for the Stars" theme in gold and neutral colors. As end of the year gifts, I wrote a special note to each student pointing out their gifts and what I appreciated about teaching them attached to favor bags. In the elementary bags, I included Lego figures (although they were not the Lego brand to be honest) or animal toys, bouncy balls, and multi-colored heart crayons made by a friend who sells them locally as a fundraiser to allow children to get involved in theater/theater camps and are not able to financially. In my middle school bags, I included cars, bouncy balls, and flashlight pencil keychains. In my high school bags, I included flashlight pencil keychains, bouncy balls, and gel ink pens (I think), which I don't have pictures of. The favors with the race cars had tags that read "This year raced by! I hope you have a great summer!" My drama student gifts had tags related to the pens that read "You are truly ink-credible and noteworthy. I hope you have a great summer!" Here are the free pintables:

For the elementary art class parties, we not only played fun improv games, but also a few art history-themed games I made up, listed below:

How Fast Can You Gogh?

This is just a team race where teams of two split up and line up on opposite sides of the gym (making two lines). In the middle were two large Van Gogh prints. Partner #1 would start when the race began, touch a Van Gogh work, then tag their partner. Partner #2 would run as soon as they were tagged, touch a Van Gogh print, and race to the line that the first partner started on. The first team to finish wins.

Art Analysis or Dare

This game was actually played in class, not for a party, but it seemed successful at making art analysis and discussion more fun. How this Truth or Dare variation works is I printed and cut into strips art critique prompts, such as "How is the element of shape being used?" "Does this picture have a good color harmony? Why or why not?" I would throw a bouncy ball to a student, ask "Analysis or Dare?" If they chose analysis, they would draw one of those strips from a paper bag and discuss the picture I put at the front of the room or handed them in response to the prompt. If they chose dare, I would give them a dare such as "Make up a dance that expresses this picture." Or "Sing a song about this picture." or "Create a poem on the spot about this work." Either way they are analyzing the work. 

Art Apples to Apples

This game was also not used for the parties but in class to analyze art and gain some art history appreciation. I used my Disney Apples to Apples winning/adjective cards and my classroom art cards (each card had a large work from an art movement). I handed out all of the adjective cards that read things like 'frightening' or 'beautiful', giving each student around four. I would have them pass an artwork around. Then they would all choose what they thought their most fitting card was, place them at the judge's desk (we chose a student to be the judge each time), and the judge would choose a card. Whoever's card got chosen would get the art print card. The one with the most art cards won a prize at the end. 

I made up several other games I'm quite sure, but I do not remember them at the moment, so I might add to this list at a later time. 

I hope this comes in handy this upcoming school year for teachers looking for affordable student gifts, end of the year party ideas, or art teachers searching for more activities!

-Lauryn