Pinwheel Birthday Treats - Classroom Freebies

Student birthday treats: You either love them or hate them.

Personally, I love them. Mainly because I have had students in the past who came from families where their birthday wa never celebrated. And that breaks my heart.

So no matter what, I make it a point to make a big deal when it’s a child’s birthday. It is the one day out of the year where they truly get all the attention.

With that said, I also know there are some school districts who have policies in place that ban treats from coming to school from the parent and/or the teacher. You might want to raise the roof for your student, but you also want to have a job to come back to the next day.

As a parent who also likes to send in treats for the entire classroom, I knew I needed to come up with something fast.

It was my little preschool man’s birthday this past week.

Normally cupcakes or a box of store bought cookies for snack time are my go to. I have even been known to decorate snack cups of mandarin oranges with silly faces (that then resemble jack-o-laterns) as a fun option.

But, his preschool had specific rules that I was going to have to follow.

Having students with varying backgrounds, diets, and developmental abilities can make it tough for teachers to be able and include all students. And it’s not much fun to celebrate with a friend, if you can’t be a participant in the fun.

I looked and looked on Pinterest for a last-minute, easy, non-food involved, and fun birthday treat for him to hand out to all his pre-K peeps.

Can you believe I couldn’t find anything via a search that met all that criteria?

So I was forced to come up with something on my own.

Can you imagine?

Inexpensive and Unique Birthday Treat Idea

Mr. Big Man leading the line as the Birthday Boy!

Here is the final result: Pinwheels!

Most every child loves pinwheels and it was a lovely change from the all the leftover Easter candy that most parents had at home so I knew they might be thrilled it was not another cookie or candy treat bag.

And they were a hit! I received lovely comments from both of his PK teachers and from the parents as well.

Here are the details so you can make your own as well:

1. Grab a pinwheel (I found mine at Walmart for 99-cents each).

2. Print your tags on cardstock. I didn’t do anything super fancy. Mine actually had a little sentence on there about practicing blowing out birthday candles, but I made some for teachers to use for student gifts below. Of course, you could make your own really easy too, or even just put a tag that says “from: (fill in name)” on it. {Hint: the kids don’t really care what it says. They just want to play with the pinwheel.}

3. Cut out your tags, hole punch the end, and use some leftover curling ribbon from Christmas to tie on to one of the blades.

That’s it! Super easy!

Maybe grab 1-2 pinwheels a week from here until the beginning of the school year, make up the tags from you, attach, and you will be set on birthday treat gifts for each of your students next year!

Even though my treat was for a preschool class, I know older kids would love this fun treat too!

Keep reading to grab the premade tags.