Preschool graduation ceremonies aren’t just for the parents and teachers, they’re extra special for the kids involved too! Preschool is an important start to each child’s education.
It’s the beginning of formal schooling for many children and it’s a time filled with excitement and mastering developmental skills they’ll use for the rest of their academic career. Finishing preschool is a big deal!
Celebrating the end of preschool with a graduation ceremony is a wonderful way to help build students’ confidence, mark their achievements, and encourage them to keep learning for years to come. There are so many fun ways to host a preschool graduation ceremony.
Keep reading to discover some of my favorite ideas, crafts, and get a free printable preschool graduation certificate too!
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Preschool Graduations Are Important
A preschool graduation ceremony marks a special achievement in a child’s life. It’s an opportunity for parents and teachers to recognize their commitment to learning and all the hard work they have done to build important skills for the future during their preschool year.
Plus, a preschool graduation will fill your students with pride and confidence they will carry with them in the future. It’s a special moment to mark a milestone: completing their first year of school! A preschool graduation is an inspiration for students for years to come.
You can use your preschool graduation ceremony to help reluctant or shy preschoolers transition to kindergarten too. This final closing ceremony will help them prepare for all the changes ahead in kindergarten. Successful transition into kindergarten impacts their academic performance in the future, so it’s important to help your preschoolers make this transition as they leave preschool.
Fun Ideas for Your Preschool Graduation Ceremony
Have I convinced you to have a preschool graduation celebration yet? Now that you’re on board, check out all the fun ideas you can incorporate into your preschool graduation ceremony to celebrate your students, help them transition to kindergarten, and squeeze in some extra fun with them at the end of the year.
Preschool Graduation Songs
Teaching your preschoolers a graduation song is a super fun way to celebrate and showcase some of the things your preschoolers have been learning this year. Kids love music so having your pre-K kiddos sing at their graduation is a lot of fun for them and for all your guests too!
There are so many different preschool songs you can sing with your kids at their preschool graduation ceremony. Here are a few of my favorite songs for a preschool graduation:
Fun in Preschool
To the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”
I’ve been having fun in preschool,
Learning all year long.
I can tell you all about it,
Just listen to this song.
We’ve been learning shapes and colors,
Letters and numbers too!
I’ve learned how to share with others,
Now our year is through!
Graduation
To the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
Kindergarten here we come
We know we’ll have lots of fun
Lots of things to make and do
Reading, writing, counting too
Kindergarten here we come
We know we’ll have lots of fun
Graduation Photo Booth
Another one of my favorite ways to celebrate at our preschool graduation ceremony is by setting up a photo booth. It’s a great opportunity for friends and family to get adorable photos with their little graduate. Plus, working on the photo booth with your students is a fun way to help them prepare for graduation and transitioning to kindergarten.
Some of my favorite photo booth ideas include props like these graduate glasses. I love ideas like setting up a fun selfie station. You can paint the backdrop with your preschool class earlier in the week for a fun art project that’s all about them.
Class Ring Party Favors
Preschool graduation party favors are a great opportunity to give your students a parting gift to let them know how proud you are of all their accomplishments this year. There are lots of cute graduation party favor ideas, but my favorite is giving preschoolers a class ring.
Ring pops are a big hit with preschoolers and giving each of your students a fun ring pop with a note that says “I’m proud of you!” is a great way to send them off to kindergarten ready for even more learning fun and adventure.
I’ve included a tag you can place on each ring as well as a Class Ring sign to display during the ceremony as a free download! These class rings are sure to be a great preschool graduation gift from the teacher.
Virtual Preschool Graduation Ideas
The pandemic has changed a lot this year, but we can still celebrate this important milestone with your preschoolers in new ways. How can you make a virtual graduation special? Virtual graduation ceremonies are a fun new way to celebrate this year. With creativity and planning, you can celebrate with your preschoolers while staying safe.
Check out some of my favorite virtual preschool graduation ideas:
Slide Show Scrapbook
This idea works best if you’ve been collecting pictures throughout the year from your classroom activities, but you can still put one together with only a few months left of school. Not meeting in person? Share screenshots and images sent in by parents.
For best results, save images as JPEG files. You can put the slideshow in Google classroom or email files to parents as keepsakes.
Student Introductions
Virtual graduations give you a unique opportunity to give each child the opportunity to share a bit about themselves, their favorite things, and what they have been learning this year in preschool. Plus, it’s really entertaining for everyone to listen to these little introductions and hear what each preschooler wants to be when they grow up.
You can interview each student, asking fun questions like “what is the weirdest thing you learned this year?” and “if you could have a superpower, what would it be?” Having a script can help provide focus and encouragement for kids who are a bit shy about speaking on camera. If you only have a few students, giving them the freedom to go off script can be lots of fun too!
Engaging Graduation Crafts for Extra Pre-K Learning
In the weeks leading up to your preschool graduation ceremony, you’ll be talking about the end of the school year with your students and helping them to practice for the graduation ceremony. Role play activities and crafts can help your preschoolers transition at the end of the year. Plus, it’s a fun budget-friendly way to decorate for your preschool graduation ceremony too. Provide dress up graduation robes and mortarboards for them to practice and become familiar with the structure of the ceremony. Then, try some of these fun preschool graduation crafts:
Graduation Crafts
These Preschool or Kindergarten graduation crafts are perfect to display during the graduation ceremony. They would also look precious hung up on an end of year bulletin board.
Handprint Invitations
Parents love handprint keepsakes. Preschoolers love getting messy with fingerpaint too. So this preschool graduation idea is a win-win!
Creating adorable handprint keepsake invitations for each student’s parents and grandparents is a fun way to incorporate art, sensory play, and fine motor skill building in your graduation preparations.
Or grab my free printable graduation invitations for an easy print and go option.
Make Graduation Caps
Make graduation caps (mortarboards) with your preschool students for a super fun activity that they can wear at the ceremony too. Preschoolers can build fine motor skills as they work to create their own tassels with yarn and scissors. Then, let them decorate the top of their mortarboard with craft supplies, drawings, and a collage of images cut from magazines.
You can provide direction and theme the graduation caps for your preschool graduation ceremony, or engage in a really fun process art activity that will help your preschoolers explore and learn while showing off their own creative imaginations.
Preschool Graduate Banner
One of my favorite ways to decorate for a preschool graduation is by working together to create a “Congratulations!” banner for the graduation ceremony. Here are some cute ideas for getting it done:
- Have each child write their name on a triangle shaped pennant and string them together for a unique preschool graduation banner that celebrates each of your preschool students.
- Assign each student one letter in the word CONGRATULATIONS and let them choose how they want to write, draw, or paint the letter on their piece of the graduate banner.
Printable Preschool Graduation Certificate
What about the most important part of any preschool graduation ceremony? You’re going to need some extra special preschool graduation certificates to give your kiddos as they walk across the stage. If you’re hosting a virtual preschool graduation, you can email these certificates to parents to print or mail them to your students individually with letters of congratulations.
I’ve created these free printable preschool graduation certificates you can use with your students to help mark their accomplishments and congratulate them on all their hard work this year. You can print these preschool graduation certificates to mail to students or roll them up and tie with gold ribbon before you hand them off to your little preschool graduates at their ceremony this year.
These pre k graduation certificates come with several different grade level phrases and backgrounds such as:
- Pre-k Diploma
- Preschool Diploma
- Kindergarten Diploma
- TK Diploma
- 3K Diploma
- 4K Diploma
- Young 5’s
In Conclusion
Are you planning something different for your preschool graduation ceremony this year? What sorts of activities and keepsakes have you planned for your little graduates? I’d love to read about your ideas, so don’t forget to share all your awesome preschool graduation ceremony ideas in the comment section. Then, come back and tell me which of these fun ideas you decided to include in your preschool commencement this year.
