It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a kid on their birthday?

After going to the I Teach K! conference in Vegas a few weeks ago, I had tons of new Internet resources to check out. I have been perusing many new blogs, and gathering ideas for my own class. I have been thinking about student birthdays a lot lately. Since I teach TK, all of my kids turn 5 between September 2nd and December 2nd. Sometimes a few kids have birthdays on the same day. In the past I had a birthday board with all of the cutesy cupcakes with the candles on them. Now that EVERY kid has a birthday within 3 months, those cutesy displays don't work anymore. I am still in the process of figuring out how to fix the birthday board.

At the end of the year I was fresh out of birthday crowns, so I decided that I would head to Lakeshore  (the only teacher supply store within 20 miles) to stock up on anything I needed for the upcoming year. Anything. Because I am only going once. That's it. Not 8 times like I did last summer. Anyway, I got there, and they only had 2(!) birthday crown options, and neither of them were cute. I almost settled for one, and decided that I would look elsewhere. That evening while spending too much time on Pinterest, I saw a post about making superhero capes. Suddenly a little light bulb above my head went on. Birthday capes!!!! The next day I forced my mom to go on an adventure with me to Joann's. We looked through tons of fabric, and I finally settled on sparkly fabric made of the same material as swimsuits.

I picked a silver, gold, and red polka dot fabric. And then a few different felts to make my designs. I decided that since all of my students will be turning 5, I would put the number and some sort of super hero-y shape on the backs. This is what I came up with. 

I figured the white thread made the numbers stand out, and I loved my lightning bolt and stars. I wasn't a fan of the red Xs. They looked a bit too pirate. So as I sewed, I decided to change those to two red lightning bolts. I love how they came out!

I am sure my students are going to love them! I can't wait to see the cute little munchkins running around in capes on their birthdays.