Kindergarten Graduation Ideas

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You can make sure that your child feels that he or she has accomplished something great by having a kindergarten graduation ceremony and party.

The young graduates deserve their graduation ceremony in recognition of their success. There are great reasons for having a kindergarten graduation event:

• Completing kindergarten is an important step and should be acknowledged


• Give the kindergarten graduates a feeling of success and reward for their hard work. This is a great grounding for the future.


• The ceremony will be a very proud moment for everyone.


• This is a fitting way to say goodbye to kindergarten and look forward to grade school.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Ceremony

With Caps and Gowns on the little graduates can receive their diplomas in front of family and friends. This is a very proud moment and the most wonderful photo opportunity. It is also great fun coming up with kindergarten graduation ideas, perhaps even a theme for the event like patriotic.

The ceremony can be a simple affair. The simplest way could be to have a diploma for each child. On the last day they can sit around in a circle, sing some beautiful graduation songs and be asked to stand up individually and receive their diploma with a big cheer from their class. A very simple but effective one of the kindergarten graduation ideas.

A more organised way of arranging the ceremony is to have a fairly formal ceremony. You could set up a beautiful table at the front with chairs set in rows facing the table. The table can be covered in a white table cover with a podium for speakers, the diplomas neatly set out and some flowers. You could have a formal order of events that proceeds like this simple example:

• Welcome (5 mins)


• Kindergarten class singing songs or acting a play (10 mins)


• Speech (5 Mins)


• Present diplomas to each child (10 mins)


• Closing thanks (5 mins)

These simple kindergarten graduation ideas can give a beautiful ceremony.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - More Ceremony Ideas

There are lots of great kindergarten graduation ideas that will make the ceremony that bit more special.

• The kids could wear formal graduation gowns and caps.


• The kids could have a colorful ceremony by wearing bright colored caps and gowns.


• Recite the Pledge Of Allegiance as part of the ceremony and sing America The Beautiful.


• Play Pomp and Circumstance as graduates March into the ceremony to.


• Have very entertaining speakers who speak for a short period only.


• Have a real celebrity attend the ceremony and give out the diplomas.


• Sing uplifting songs like The World Is A Rainbow by Greg and Steve, or sing a friendship song like Lean On Me by Bill Withers


• Give the kids a gift as well as their diploma. The gift may be a simple coloring book and pens.


• Recite a great kindergarten graduation poem.


• Give each child an award of some kind. Consider
  
  • Helping others
  • Good listener
  • Learning numbers
  • Learning words
  • Reading
  • Learning colors
  • Writing well
  • Learning shapes
  • Washing hands
  • Perfect attendance award
  • Contributing
  • Good teachers helper
  • Caring award
  • Great Ideas
  • Hard Worker
  • Good manners

  and lots more kindergarten graduation ideas such as learning to tie shoes.



• Set up an aisle for the kids to walk down. The parents can take lots of great photos.


• The children can put on a short program. They could sing their favorite song, recite the Pledge Of Allegiance, recite the alphabet, and sing perhaps a goodbye song.


• Call out each child by name and give them a diploma tied with a ribbon.


• Perhaps arrange a photo area with a professional background for the parents to take lots of photos. Maybe even include a flag in the photo area.


• The parents could perform at the ceremony. It may be fun for them to entertain the kids with a song or a little play, for example. Indeed some of them may be musical or even play amateur dramatics.

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To make simple caps use black construction paper. Cut a piece 9" by 9" for the top. Next cut 2 equal pieces 4" wide and 12" long. Join them together and, sizing for each child, tape them to the square top.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Preparations

There is a lot more you can do to get ready for a kindergarten graduation ceremony. These kindergarten graduation ideas may not all seem to be too important but they will make a difference.

• Create and send out kindergarten graduation invitations.


• Create a party area


• Create programs containing the ceremony details to give to each guest


• Order or make the diplomas


• Rehearse the childrens‘ parts such as their poetry recital, song or even the little play them may put on.


• Make sure the music you will play is on a CD and is ready to play. Make sure the CD or PM3 player is working and has a power supply.


• Make sure the entire area is cleaned and you may be able to freshen up some paint work.


• Decorate the venue


• Buy the gifts


• Use a sign up sheet to get parental help. Parents hopefully will sign up for bringing food, drinks, party supplies and gifts.


• Set up an area for the parents to get heir child ready for the graduation ceremony.


• Set up an area for the parents to get drinks and a snack.


• Budget, this is vital as it determines the extent of the party. However if everyone pulls together and supplies food, decorations, prizes and their time, it is very possible to have a great event on a small budget.


• Make bookings for caterer, photographer and entertainment


• Arrange a Guest speaker


• Activities on the graduation day
  


• To help make your kindergarten graduation ideas work, arrange helpers such as parents, childminders, or siblings. Need a good ratio of helpers to kids.
  Each helper should know exactly what they have to do.


• Have the gifts ready in advance, and in running order, with names on the bags.


• Know exactly who is helping to clear away afterwards.


• Keep a note of the kids who get awards, to make sure everyone gets something.


• Signpost the car parking, the ceremny area, where the parents are to sit and the toilets


• Get a mobile number for the parents


• Ask a helper to look after coats and shoes


• Ask a helper to help with games and prizes and ask a helper to take photos.
  
  

Of course having a graduation party either as part of the graduation day celebrations or at another time is a great idea. For essential tips on preparing for the party see the Kindergarten Graduation Party Planning page.

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Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Venue

The venue for the Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony is likely to be at the kindergarten itself. The kindergarten can be beautifully decorated and arranged to make the ceremony seem so special.

However if it is not possible to use the kindergarten for some reason there are lots of alternatives:

• A nearby school may be able to offer facilities


• Your town may have a hall you can use


• A hotel may be able to accommodate the graduation ceremony in an event room


• If the weather is guaranteed to be fine then you could use an outdoor venue such as a local park. Of course you do need to be clear that each child will be safe and can be seen at all times. You can of course stay at the park and have some great games afterwards. There will need to be toilet facilities too.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Make it Colorful

Another good kindergarten graduation ideas is to make sure that the ceremony has plenty of color. Children at this age are very reactive to colorful things. There are lots of ways of adding wonderful color to the graduation ceremony. A simple touch is having the kids wear colorful graduation caps and gowns.

The kids can wear a color for the whole day. For example if the color is purple the kids could wear purple tennis shoes, purple pants, purple t-shirts and purple baseball caps.

You can give the kindergarten lots of color for the day by using colored balloons, streamers, tinsel, colored light bulbs, ribbons and fire safe gossamers.

Also a rather good decoration is, for each child, their first day photo, a current photo and some facts on the child. The facts could be favorite food, favorite toy, favorite game and favorite thing about Kindergarten.

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Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Speeches

One simple thing to keep in mind is to keep any speeches of any kind very short. Remember, your audience will have a short attention span.

This is a lovely group of kids, parents and teachers. So, warm thanks, praise, glowing tributes to the little graduates, a fun emphasis and simple langauage are best.

Make sure the teachers get a mention as they will have given the kids a lot during their time together.

If you can, name each little graduate and give some praise for their efforts.

Brilliant if you can have one of the kids' heroes come and give an inspiring talk and stay to sign autographs and answer questions.

Click here for free kindergarten graduation speeches, tips and techniques.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Graduation Party

You may also be intending to have a graduation party as part of your kindergarten graduation ideas. In that case you may need lots of tips, ideas and techniques for decorations, games, food, favors and music. You may also wish to use the free graduation invitations on the page.

Click here for all the kindergarten graduation party ideas you need.

You also may need kindergarten graduation themes ideas.

Kids may love to take part in a scavenger hunt.

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Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Food

Straight after the ceremony you may wish to give the parents and their families some hospitality. Our local kindergarten provides tea and coffee to drink. They also give some beautiful home baking contributed by the teachers and parents. That can be some cakes, cupcakes, chocolate cookies and some apple pie.

This gives the parents a great chance to socialise together for a while before they collect their child and head home. You may want the children to join in this social event. In that case you can add fruit juice, fruit, candy and boxes of raisins, for example.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Themes

The entire graduation graduation ideas activities, ceremony and complete end of year day could have a theme which is followed through in the decorations, activities, music and costumes. You could have a :

• Patriotic theme with great activities like finding out about Presidents, learning about the Flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and just enjoying your country.


• Super Star theme can let you aim everything at the graduate‘s being stars. The main decorations would be stars, each child can have their photo in a star and the kids can also learn about some real stars.


• Summer fun theme which can really get everyone in the mood for the summer holiday time. They can wear summer clothing, have lots of summer decorations and learn about the weather, fun activities and their favorite vacation spot. You can also help them with some safety tips on keeping out of the sun.


• A fun job theme where the kids come dressed as their favorite job. They can find out a little bit about the job and enjoy being things like a police officer for the day.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Teacher and Parent Ideas

There are lots of kindergarten graduation ideas the teachers and parents can do to make things that bit more special.

Make up a pack for the kids to take home in the same way as a party favor bag. The pack can include:

• A great photo of them at kindergarten


• Their best kindergarten drawings


• Their best work on numbers and letters, for example.


• A candy treat


• A well done and good luck note from the teacher.


• Pens and pencils


• Notepad


• Coloring in book


• A calendar made with kindergarten photos


• A poem


• Lego


• A piggy bank to start saving.

Give a Memory Book which the kids and their families can treasure forever. The kids can help complete the detail with things like:

• Name of Kindergarten


• Teachers name


• Friends names


• Autographs of friends


• Favorite subjects, favorite songs, favorite event and favorite part of the day.

The parents can bake cakes and cupcakes for the ceremony. They should have enough for the families.

If the theme would benefit from having a lot of people in costume, the parents can get dressed up.

The parents can raise money to make the kindergarten graduation celebrations even better.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Extra Touches

Some great extra kindergarten graduation ideas are:

• Give each child a memory book.


• take photos during the year and pick out the best ones. Have at least one of each child. Have them loaded onto a PC or DVD with backing music like What a Wonderful world by Louis Armstrong. There will not be a dry eye at the ceremony as this is played.


• Give each child a small plant pot with a seed in it which hey can watch grow over the summer.


• Have a room where the graduation is set up. The room could have an overall fun theme like Hawaii.


• The kids can complete a page about themselves. They can add their name, parents names, height, weight, photo, favorite things about kindergarten, friends‘ names and favorite food.


• The kids can make their own graduation caps.


• As part of the graduation activities you can work with the kids to create their own kindergarten graduation invitations. They can create their own design and color it in. As part of the activity they can learn about graduation caps, scrolls and gowns. The invites can go to their family.

As part of learning about graduation and what it means to the kids they can do a few things such as:

• Draw graduation caps, scrolls and gowns.


• Safely cut out graduation shapes like graduation caps and color them in.


• Write out what they think graduation means.


• Write a welcome note to their parents to be displayed at the graduation ceremony.

Teachers can also set up lots of activities. Teachers can find graduation themed Word Search, Follow, Spot The Difference and printable jigsaw puzzles.

There are lots of little extra kinderegarten graduation ideas.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Whole Day Activities

You will need a number of activities to make this work. Some ideas could be:

• Craft Area - set up a craft area decorated for graduation with:
  • Graduation themed coloring in with graduation caps and gowns.
  
  
  • Decorate a graduation hat where you can give the kids a homemade cap and pens, stickers, plus other additions.
  
  
  • Decorate a t-shirt which can also be signed by the other kids and parents
  
  
  • Make thank you cards for the teacher.
  
  



• Performance - set up a performance area decorated for graduation. Things that can be performed include:
  • Plays
  
  
  • Singing
  
  
  • Tell kindergarten jokes
  
  
  • Make speeches
  
  
  • Have a quiz
  
  
  • Dancing
  
  
  • Talent Spots
  
  
  • Professional performers like magicians, actors, singers and ventriloquists
  
  



• Experiences - set up an area containing the kindergarten experiences of the graduates.
  • Display each graduates best work
  
  
  • Show videos made by interviewing each graduate about what they think are the best things about graduation. They can leave a message for the next group of kindergarten kids.
  
  


• Activities - set up an activities are to play lots of games:

• Play pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey


• Guess the number of coins in the jar


• Decorate cookies with edible toppings


• Soccer shoot in if it can be played safely


• Bouncy castle

More Kindergarten Graduation Ideas

More kindergarten graduation ideas:

• Feature the kids achievements in the ceremony and decorations. Their artwork makes brilliant kindergarten graduation ideas decorations, for example. Also special project work and particularly where the children have their photos beside their excellent work.


• Set up a Time Capsule with lots of fun items from their year in kindergarten. Timecapsule kindergarten graduation ideas can take a lot of thought and the children can have their say in what goes in. They may like to also consider news items, toys, and information children in the future may like to know about.


• Set up a scrapbook.


• Family and friends will give gifts to the little graduate. Hand written thank you notes are best.


• You might need to raise funds. Throughout the kindergarten year you can sell cookies, sell cakes, hold raffles, ask the parents to take part in sponsored runs and walks. A good fund raising committee will have lots of creative ideas.


• Raise money for the kids favorite charity by having raffles and inviting donations. Parents could donate prizes for the raffle.


• Perhaps some of the children attend things like dancing classes. In that case they may be able to put on a dancing display helped by their dance teacher.


• If you have someone famous locally perhaps they can attend the ceremony and lead the children in a song as well as giving a motivational speech.


• Entertainers such as a choir may be able to sing to the children and also involve the whole audience.


• The children could play host and serve juice, cake and cookies to their parents.


• If this is a large group you could show the ceremony live on a screen for those at the back of the audience.


• In advance of the ceremony the children could make star shapes and put in it their own photo and name. These could be decorations around the ceremony.


• Give the parents a song to sing as a group.

Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Music

There are lots of great kindergarten graduation ideas songs on the songs page. Some fine examples to enhance your kindergarten graduation ideas are:

• Circle Of Life by Elton John


• What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong


• See Me Beautiful by Red Grammer


• Whole New World From Disneys Aladdin sung by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga.


• Kids Just Wanna Have Fun by The Hit Crew.

I hope your kindergarten graduation ideas give your kids the best graduation day they could possibly have. They deserve to have fun and celebrate their achievements with great kindergarten graduation ideas.

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Kindergarten Graduation Ideas - Sharing

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