Since I teach Kindergarten, the last few weeks of school are all about one thing: GRADUATION. My students can’t wait to graduate and the teachers work hard to make graduation a truly special event.
My students made these adorable portraits of themselves as graduates!
Everyone created one last Interactive Sight Word Reader before graduation: I Learned How to be a Kindergartener. I wanted to cry as I watched all of my students independently create and read their own books. It’s amazing how far they have come this past year!
You can purchase I Learned How to be a Kindergartener on TpT for only $1. It includes printables to create a six-page emergent reader for students, letters for students to cut and paste into the book, and instructions for the teacher!
Or, save big and buy the Bundle of Books! This mega download is over 500 pages long and includes more than 70 emergent readers for sight word practice. Save over 40% when you buy the Bundle!
The big day finally arrived! We ordered custom sashes through Andersons.com so the kindergarteners would have a lasting keepsake of their special day. Priced at about $5 each, I think the sashes are a nice alternative to the cap and gown. They added a touch of formality to the student’s “Sunday Best” attire, but were far less of a temptation to play with than a big cap or gown.
The sashes come in a wide variety of solid colors, plus printed backgrounds!
Finally, my students were ready to graduate!
This is one of my favorite photos from the event. The students had a chance to chat and share their excitement before the ceremony began!
Find lots of great end-of-year ideas and activities!
9 Responses
Love the idea of the sashes. I will have to keep that in mind for next year.
April
Wolfelicious
The graduation portraits turned out adorable! I bet parents loved them 🙂
Jessica
The Littlest Scholars
Do you have kids that have to be retained? If so, what do you do about them? I would love to do “graduation” stuff, but it is always an End-of-Year Celebration because of not every child going on to first grade.
I was wondering the same thing!
That picture of the kids on the riser is one of the most precious pis I have seen. Just ADORABLE.
Mels
I can’t find the sashes that can be personalized! Can you help???
Hi Stefanie,
Here is a link to get you started. http://www.andersons.com/AlphabetU/sashes-and-stoles/Full-color-Custom-Graduation-Sash-Superstars I always order mine over the phone so I can tell someone exactly what color I want and what I want each side of the sash to say. It takes some time but is totally worth it. They do a better job of displaying their sashes in their catalog. I’m sure if you call customer service they will mail you a catalog. I hope this helps!
Anderson actually has a sister website called graduationforkids.com and they have more options than the anderson site. However, they don’t offer any previews of what the sashes will look like with letters printed on them: http://www.graduationforkids.com/graduation-sashes/design-it-yourself-graduation-sash
but thanks to the pic on your blog, I got a better idea which is important b/c some fonts look awful when printed vertically depending on various factors. I still had to go to a font preview site b/c I didn’t have some of them on my computer and i wanted to see how they looked in upper case. IN case anyone is interested: http://www.myfonts.com/search/%28bookman+medium%29/fonts/
Thanks for posting the pic. You were more helpful to me than the 4 c/s reps I spoke with b/c they all said there were no pics available of the custom sashes with letters on them.
Is the red sash with the smiley face also from Anderson? Thanks.