Celebrations Policy
The following information about holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations comes from the Skinner North Student Handbook:
Student birthdays will be observed in a non-traditional way at Skinner North: without food. The decision to acknowledge birthdays without cakes, ice cream, pizzas, juice, and/or other “treats” has been made to accommodate students who have severe food-related allergies, students who do not celebrate holidays, and students who have an adverse reaction to sugar consumption (which may affect classroom focus and performance in the afternoon). |
Your child will be honored, in class, in other ways on his/her birthday, which may include:
If you would like to bring something in for your child’s special day, here are a few non-food options that the children may enjoy:
Please communicate with your child’s teacher at least one week in advance so that she may plan accordingly. If you choose to distribute birthday party invitations to your child’s classmates, please send enough invitations for the entire class or at least invite either all of the girls or all of the boys, depending on the gender of the child. Too often, invitations are sent to school only for a select few. It is too heartbreaking for those not invited. If sending invitations to school with your child, make sure that he/she gives the invitations to the teacher and not to the children directly. If you cannot send invitations for everyone, please make arrangements to pass out invitations outside of school.
Likewise, our current holiday policy states that classrooms are urged to study and learn about various holidays throughout the year. No formal celebrations will be conducted in the classroom. Our school wide no-food-out-of-the-cafeteria policy also applies to this situation. We encourage parents and family members to contact teachers and volunteer to come into the classrooms and share their experiences from the holidays as well.
- choosing a present from the teacher, receiving a hand-made birthday poster or card from the class
- receiving compliments in a compliment circle or taking home a jar of compliments
- dancing to a special song
- choosing a book to read to the class or for the teacher to read aloud
- creating a birthday story with his/her classmates
- sitting in a special chair
- acting as a helper
- bringing in a show-and-tell item
- choosing a favorite game or computer activity for the class to enjoy
- or other ways!
If you would like to bring something in for your child’s special day, here are a few non-food options that the children may enjoy:
- individual pencils, stickers, books, or art supplies
- an art project we can make
- a song we can sing
- music we can dance to
- a game we can play
Please communicate with your child’s teacher at least one week in advance so that she may plan accordingly. If you choose to distribute birthday party invitations to your child’s classmates, please send enough invitations for the entire class or at least invite either all of the girls or all of the boys, depending on the gender of the child. Too often, invitations are sent to school only for a select few. It is too heartbreaking for those not invited. If sending invitations to school with your child, make sure that he/she gives the invitations to the teacher and not to the children directly. If you cannot send invitations for everyone, please make arrangements to pass out invitations outside of school.
Likewise, our current holiday policy states that classrooms are urged to study and learn about various holidays throughout the year. No formal celebrations will be conducted in the classroom. Our school wide no-food-out-of-the-cafeteria policy also applies to this situation. We encourage parents and family members to contact teachers and volunteer to come into the classrooms and share their experiences from the holidays as well.