Birthday Book Writing Activity- Free download until Wednesday June 12!

Birthdays are always exciting when teaching younger grades.  One thing I like to do to get the whole class involved with celebrating birthdays is to write a birthday book (see cover above).  This birthday book serves as a special keepsake for the birthday boy or girl and fun writing practice for the rest of the class.

First, I help the class brainstorm reasons why we want the birthday boy or girl to have a Happy Birthday.  Some of my favorite reasons they have come up with are:

• you are nice
• you are a good friend
• you are good at sports
• you help others
• you are smart
• you are good at math
• you are as pretty as a purple store (this one cracked me up!)

Then I give the students one of the pages below.  I generally use the page without the sentence prompt to give students more options when they are writing.  However the sentence prompt page would be great for kindergarten or first grade students or for older struggling writers. 

               

After the students have finished writing, they get to draw an illustration for the birthday boy or girl.  They usually draw a cake or a present that they hope their friend gets on their birthday. 

I have put together a pack available over at my TPT store that includes everything you will need to make this birthday book with your class.  Also included are printable pencil toppers and candy stick toppers that you can use to make birthday presents for your class!  The best part is this pack is free until midnight on Wednesday, June 12.  If you do download the pack, please think about following my store and my blog as well as leaving feedback on TPT.  Click here to download.

Included in this pack are:

• Pre-made Covers (in color and black and white) for grades K-3rd (these covers include a blank for the student's name)
• Editable covers (in color and black and white)  These covers have no text so you can edit them to say anything you want!
• Student letter pages both with and without a sentence starter
• Birthday balloon pencil toppers
• Birthday balloon candy stick toppers

All graphics used in this pack are from www.mycutegraphics.com