Birthdays are a meaningful and exciting topic among the children in Preschool 2 at RisingOaks Early Learning | Oak Creek. The children often engage in conversations about their birthdays, sharing or inquiring about the month and day they were born, their current age, and the age they will be turning on their next birthday. Through these discussions, they are developing a stronger sense of self, building connections with their pees, and learning to appreciate similarities and differences among one another. They also show great curiosity and excitement when asking about their friends and educators’ birthdays, fostering a sense of community and belonging within the group.
One cherished birthday tradition in our classroom is creating a personalized “birthday wall” for the birthday person. The children enthusiastically participate in planning and designing the wall to represent their favourite colours, characters, or images. Some children even bring special items from home to contribute to their birthday wall. We notice that the children display a strong sense of excitement not only for their own birthday wall, but for their peers’ celebrations as well. Witnessing the joy and connection that these moments offer is truly heartwarming.
Another birthday ritual that has emerged within our classroom is the creation of pretend birthday cakes at the playdough area. The children collaborate to prepare, decorate, and add candles to their play dough cakes, while singing happy birthday and sending birthday wishes to the birthday person. Through imaginative play, they express care, creativity, and a desire to celebrate one another.
This month, we celebrated several birthdays, including the birthday of one of our educators, Rachel. Inspired by the children’s ongoing interest in creating play dough cakes during birthday celebrations, we decided to extend their learning and make a real cake together for Rachel’s special day. The children were ecstatic and eager to participate in every step of the process. Together, they discussed the ingredients, measured, poured, mixed, and observed the transformation of the batter. We used food colouring to turn the batter and icing blue, Rachel’s favourite colour.
The children demonstrated patience and anticipation as we waited for the cake to bake in the oven, excitedly watching the timer and discussing what might happen next! Once cooled, they helped spread the icing decorate the cake with colourful sprinkles, and proudly present their creation to Rachel. The children collaboratively designed the cake with heaping amounts of sprinkles gathered in the centre of the cake, and just a few traces of sprinkles for the edges. Of course, they also participated in tasting the cake and celebrating the hard work they had contributed together.
Spending the afternoon baking together created memories rich with collaboration, presence, joy, and meaningful connection. When one of the children arrived at preschool the following day, they announced “I want to have another birthday party for Rachel!” Perhaps baking a birthday cake together will become a new classroom ritual in Preschool 2.
