Today, I’m sharing our Pre-K End of Year Celebration, along with printable certificates. Several people have asked me to share ideas for Preschool Graduation, but to be really honest, what I do is really simple. I also know this will be late for some teachers and not for others — if so, I hope you will pin it for next year.
End of Year Celebration
Some teachers call it Graduation, but I call it our “End of Year Celebration”. Our program is very relaxed and casual, and we don’t have caps and gowns or a formal ceremony. Parents are encouraged to come.
The kids show the parents a few songs that we’ve learned. I call them by name and give them a Pre-K Certificate along with their portfolio notebook, which the children take and present to their parents. We then have cookies, juice, and bottled water for the kids and their parents. In years past, I either showed a slideshow or a short movie we’ve made for the parents (but this year, I ran out of time).
The songs we do are ones that the kids are very familiar with and we’ve done all year. We don’t even spend time practicing because the kids already know them. I let the children choose the songs: each child recommends one and then I narrow down the list. The best songs are ones with lots of hand and body motions because the kids tend to forget to sing when all those parents are watching them.
Download & Print the Portfolio Notebook Covers
These are editable PowerPoint files. Download & open the files (you must have PowerPoint on your computer). Then click in each text box to change the text: enter child’s name, school name, and school year. You can change the font as well. The font is automatically Century Gothic because most people already have that on their computer. The font I used on my notebook covers is KG Second Chances Solid, which you can get for free by clicking the link. You might need to change the text size if you change to a different font.
To place the child’s photo on the cover, just drag and drop the child’s photo there (or you can click Insert > Photo > Picture from File). Drag and drop will be easier. You might need to resize the photo, so click the picture and resize it using the arrow at the corner of the photo. You can also move the photo and the text around if needed.
Download: Blue Portfolio Cover
Download: Pink Portfolio Cover
Our Luau Party
After the songs and certificates, all of the children and parents are invited to have refreshments. Our party theme every year is a luau because its very summery, and by keeping the same theme each year, I can use the same decorations. The Dollar Tree always has a lot of luau themed decorations in May. I also found luau party printables on Etsy that I can use for cupcake toppers (which we had last year), water bottle labels, and a banner. This year, we had a variety of cookies, juice, and bottled water.
End of Year Gifts
Two End of Year gifts I have used with my class are:
I often choose one of these treat bags and add something to it in a gift bag, such as bubbles or a small pack of sidewalk chalk or a dollar set of watercolor paints.
What do you do to celebrate the end of the year with your class? Share in the comments below!
End of Year Certificates
Print these editable certificates for children to celebrate their completion of your Pre-K program. I made these with the words “Pre-K” and “Preschool” and since I have a lot of Kindergarten teachers who follow this site, I made one for “Kindergarten” also.
The editable files are PowerPoint files, but I also have PDF files if you don’t have PowerPoint available. In the PowerPoint files, I used the Century Gothic font for the editable parts because its a font everyone already has. If you would like your font to match the rest of the text on the certificate, I used the Kimberly Geswein font called KG Be Still and Know (free at the link, or here).
Pre-K Certificates
Preschool Certificates
Kindergarten Certificates
Transitional Kindergarten Certificate
Find more End of Year Resources here!
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Awesome graphics by:
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Karen i am a dedicated montessori teacher from ireland and today i had to take my first day off sick in six half years since i started work..with a flu and vomiting bug and seen above in my emails and you put a smile on myface. Your resources are simply the best and i will absolutely pin them. Thanks for making my day
Simple ideas are the best , we call ours “Moving Up ceremony”. Thank you for sharing yours,
We also call our program the “End of the Year Celebration”! We sing some fun songs with fingerplays and do some poems or chants that the children know well. They receive their certificates and then we celebrate with a reception in our classroom and playground. We usually do a large sheet cake and have punch. The children received a packet with ideas for summer fun and ways to get ready for kindergarten. We also give the parents a copy of our end of the year DVD that I make each year. The children receive their “My Story” books that we wrote throughout the year. The children dictated stories to high school students and then drew pictures to illustrate. We laminate the cover and bind them for the children. It’s a lovely way to end the year and visit with parents and families of the children. This is my 20th year celebrating with our preschoolers:)
Thanks for sharing Debra!
Since we study nursery rhymes all year, we end the year with a Mother Goose Brunch. We recite a few of the nursery rhymes we have learned, get a “Bachelor of Rhymes” certificate handed out by Mother Goose (our school board president), and have a brunch with nursery rhyme themed snacks. Our snacks include Cow Jumped Over the Moon Cakeballs, Jack and Jill’s Water, Peter Piper’s Pickled Pepper Platter, Little Boy Blue’s Haystacks, and a variety of other things. The children learn one nursery rhyme each week, which they illustrate. At the end of the year, I bind them into a book and the kids present them to their parents during the brunch.
Aw, that sounds so cute, Susan. Thanks for sharing your idea!
Thank you so much Karen for sharing your ideas, I am learning a lot here.
Ton of thank for sharing it!
I love all you ideas! Thank you so much for sharing. Just wondering if it would be possible to add a 4K Certificate for the end of the year? Enjoy your last days of school!!
Thanks so much for making these editable! It saves so much time and I know you’ve put so much time and effort into these and all other items. It is greatly appreciated!
Karen-I love your site and emails with suggestions. So helpful. Can you tell me where I can find the covers to your portfolios? I love them, but don’t see them anywhere? Are they in you TPT store?
I’ll post them on the site as soon as I get a chance. Thanks, glad you like them!
Hi, I was wondering if the pre-k portfolio covers are available anywhere. Are they for sale on TPT?
Hi Hendrika,
I have just updated the post to add the portfolio covers. Thanks!
Hi Karen. Love the resources here. I also love your certificates for Pre-K & Kindergarten. I wonder if you have ever printed one for a Transitional Kindergarten or some people call it a Jr.Kindergarten? I teach such a class and ofcourse I can never fine those. Would you consider printing one? We call our class “Transitions” thanks!!
It has been added now. Thanks!
I love the editable Pre-K certificates! Thank you so much. Those are cute and I have already printed mine out. I’m all ready now 🙂 Much better than the certificates I usually hand out. Thank you Karen…… I’m so glad I found you this year. Your ideas are incredible!!!
Hi Karen really your ideas impressed me lot . I am a big fan of you. I like your new name for graduation day. In the new session i will also celebrate graduation day in a new way.Thanks!.
This is Selamawit from Ethiopia . I love you ideas and it is perfect time for us . Here it is not easy to get materials for teaching aid. Your ideas helps a lot. Thank you
THANK YOU so much for all the fun and creative ideas that you share with us! I was just thinking about Kinder. certificates. I love the one you shared, so that will be ours this year. 🙂
For our end of the year program we do some of the songs and finger plays we have enjoyed through the year, show a slide show of pictures and then have refreshments.
Thank you for sharing the certificates. Would it be possible to get a Pre-K one with a space for only one signature?
Karen love your sight and all your ideas(do you ever go home!)
Do you have your moving up during the day? I have mine in the evening and usually have 100 or more family members attend, so it tends not to be so simple.
Thanks for printable certs.
Thank you so much, Karen, for the free edit-able certificates. I LOVE them. I appreciate your generosity in giving to others without thought of remuneration.
Thank you so much for providing a TK Certificate, since it is still so new it is so frustrating to have to worry about something so petty as finding an award with the appropriate title. You are an awesome person for taking the time to do this!
-Susie
i was approached by a former Pre-K teacher about doing a graduation type program, and my program, like yours is more laid back! So I thought it would be nice to just do something simple, but fun for the kids! My program is similar to yours 🙂
We are singing songs we sang all year, presenting their favorite journal entry (Every few weeks I would give them a question or topic, and they would draw a picture, and my aide and I would write their thoughts!), and then a slide show with pictures from the year and more songs they like! We are also having refreshments which the parents are providing. I limited it to 2 people invited per child, since it will be in our room, and not much space! The gym is utilized for field day and kindergarten practice (and I think they would get stage freight up there!! I have a quiet and shy group this year!!) so our room is more comfortable for them.
I am so excited for Monday! We are done on Wednesday, so I picked the second to last day! Our K-8th graders are done on Wednesday too.
It is my first year at this school- a great first year!
Karen–you are my inspiration! Thank you for being my spark! We too have a Pre-K promotion ceremony. They wear their homemade grad. caps while processing into the auditorium one at a time to Disney’s Electrical parade music! They start at the back and come up front where they “pose and wave” for a pic. Parents love this. We go up on stage to sing a few songs, then our big buddies (4th graders) come up and offer some “words of wisdom” –some words are poignant, others funny. (like “always remember to get a Kleenex before you blow your nose”
Then the teachers hand out superlative awards based on OUR observations of each child in class. They range from “best dance moves” to “most likely to take over my job”…
We also bring up “our fairy godmothers”…these are the women who constantly step up, at the last minute, and go above and beyond (its a complete surprise to them)…they are presented with a foam crown, a pair of fairy wings, a magic wand and a small bottle of “fairy dust”. (and usually some sort of grown up gift (wine, starbucks etc) We end with the presentation of the class to the families. Immediately following our promotion is our potluck style luau. We do chicken legs (bc they can be eaten hot or cold and no utensils required) and various salads; we eat out in our play yard where there is Hawaiian music and simple games. The whole shebang is usually 2-2.5 hours, but its our last full day, so its worth it. Its a nice way to end the year just “hanging out with the parents and families—its exactly how we started the year—with a presentation of teachers, classrooms, curriculum and a bbq!
I’m a Prekinder teacher and i enjoy all the great ideas.:)
I’m glad you keep yours simple, also…. I think of “graduation” as a culminating event… and since there’s still a LOT of education left, I hate calling it a preK graduation… (Plus we’re mixed age 3’s-4’s… don’t want to single out only half the class!)… this year, we used the last 1 1/2 of our day as field day/celebrations… so as parents were coming in, we were using GoNoodle (so hopefully the parents see how cute it is and use it with their kids over the summer!!!!), then we watched a slide show (iPhoto make them super easy!), and handed out certificates and portfolios… then we went outside for field day with popsicles. Super simple… and I didn’t hear any complaints.
I SO agree with keeping it simple. In the pre-K program where I worked last year, it is customary to have an “elaborate” event at end of the year including cap and gown, singing newly learned “graduation” songs in a giant, unfamiliar gym. I would have rather had parents in the classroom where kids are comfortable, showing off some of what they have learned throughout the year. Simple and as stress-free as possible!
This is awesome! I do an End of the year celebration too and it is almost exactly like yours. We do a luau theme also. My students are encouraged to wear Hawaiian clothes and we do limbo, hula hoop and play with beach balls before and after the parents join us. I ask parents to make fruit kabobs for snacks. We have lots of fun! I also keep the same theme and keep collecting the luau decorations from the Dollar Tree. We have quite the collection now!
Thank you for making a Transitional Kindergarten certificate! I missed this until now. Our school year did not end until July 21 and it honestly took me until this week to even look at school things. I’m sure you understand that ;-).
I’m going back through a lot of your things now while I have some energy (ha ha ha). I love your stuff! Thank you!
HI Karen,
I love the certificates if it would be possible to have the words also be editable I would love to have one for the students going to Kinder and I have returning preschoolers so I would like to edit the heading. Thank you for the cute graphics as well love them.
Hi! There are certificates available here for Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Transitional Kindergarten. I’m not able to make other parts of the certificate editable because making editable documents is extremely time consuming. With end of year assessments and such going on, I don’t have time to do that, I’m really sorry.
What are some music titles to use with slideshow- ive ised sevral for several uears wanted to change it up spme this year
What do you put in your portfolio notebooks? I’m wanting to do something that documents the events of the year and the child’s progress but don’t know what to put in and what to leave out.
Hi Kim,
I have examples on this page: https://www.prekinders.com/student-portfolios/
Scroll down to “What to include in a portfolio”.
Awesome! Thank you thank you. I love them.
I am a transitional kindergarten teacher from California and I have had a terrible time trying to find an appropriate certificate for my grade level. I absolutely LOVE that you included that here. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thanks so much for creating the amazing pre-k graduation certificates! They’re great!
thank you! i used these for my homeschool and they are so adorable!
You have excellent, cute and sensible ideas that really work. Thank you so much for sharing.
Vicki
As with just about everything I see on your site, I really love the idea of a calmer end of year event. Over the years ours has just gotten over the moon complicated, to the point where we decided this year was the last. I am wondering ~ does this take place in the classroom, and if so, is space a problem? Keep up the fantastic job you do with this site!
Hi Jennifer, This does take place in our classroom and yes, space is a problem, but our parents are kind of used to it because every event or party is in our classroom. Our school has limited space anyway, so there’s no other place. An outdoor picnic or ice cream party would be a great idea as well.