Happy Birthday to...your kids!

Looking for a new, easy way to celebrate student birthdays?  I came across this blog about a woman who decided to do 38 random acts of kindness for her 38 birthday...and I got an idea.  Last year, instead of celebrating birthdays with the usual candy or cheap toys from Dollar Tree, I told the kids we were going to celebrate birthdays in our class by having everyone do random acts of kindness in honor of the birthday person.  We read through the blog together and made a huge list of things we could do around the school to honor each other.  And now, when a birthday pops up, the kids are busy doing acts of kindness for each other and they write a list of their acts, along with a birthday note, for the child to take home at the end of the day.  I love the kindness and they love notes from everyone!  (We still doing the singing and hugs)
Note: At our school, school policy thankfully bans parent food/celebrations.