I’m getting ready to take treats into my son’s school classroom tomorrow, and it reminded me that I have never posted the treats I took for my daughter’s birthday in the Spring. As you may recall from some of my past school treats (the robot juice boxes, packaged smores, and the #10 donuts), our school (state?) prohibits any homemade goods to be brought in. This rule has frustrated me for a couple of reasons.
1) Purchasing treats (like cupcakes) is usually a lot more expensive than making them.
2) Purchased treats usually lack imagination and tend to be commercial and/or boring.
Of course, not being easily swayed, I have taken these limitations as a personal challenge to come up with treats that aren’t super-expensive, and are fun and memorable–and, whenever possible, tie into the theme of the birthday.
After last year’s donut + twinkie #10 was such a hit, I thought an 11 would be a no brainer. I had initially thought to use only Twinkies, and staple the topper to the individual packages with a little bit of space in between, so that the shape of the #1s would be obvious. When I started to price out enough twinkies for the whole class to get two, I got discouraged about the cost. So I had to come up with a plan B. These Swiss Roll cakes were already packaged in sets of two and were much cheaper. So while the #11 may not be as obvious, the assembly was really quick and easy.
And since this was her book-themed birthday, we didn’t stop there. We made more of the miniature chocolate books that we gave out as party favors at the party–again, with a fictitious story about the birthday girl on the pages.
(Of course, they are open to Chapter 11!) The kids loved these–especially the little story on the pages. For more information on how to make them, check out this post–where we made them into miniature edible scriptures.
Here is the image I designed as the topper for the 11-year old treats. Click on it to bring it up at full resolution. Right-click to save to your computer. Then, you can resize it in your photo software, or tell your printer how many to print on a page to get the size you need.
What treats do you take in to the school to celebrate birthdays? Does your school allow homemade treats?
I understand that rule is so frustrating. It gets so expensive. But as a teacher, I completely understand why. Our district had the same policy, but I did my student teaching in an inner-city school. They made an exception because of the poverty of the students. Upon biting into a cookie someone brought for their birthday I discovered rocks in it. Their kitchen was so dirty that rocks got mixed in with the cookies. Not to mention all the sketchy parents that would love to add drugs to the homemade items! As someone who has to make everything from scratch due to food allergies, I know it’s hard. But SO important! Obviously you prove it can still be fun, cheap and creative!
Thats a great idea. I am just sad that my school district doesnt allow the kids to bring food treats to school, but, anyway is an awesome idea even to regular bdays.
Her Schools Children.