Show off your student's artistic abilities and fine motor skills by helping them create personalized graduation outfits. Design class shirts for students to wear for the celebration. Write the year that students will graduate from high school or the date of the Head Start graduation on their shirts and allow them to decorate their shirts as they wish. Have them write their names on each others' shirts, or let them leave their mark by placing their hand prints on everyone's shirt. Help students create graduation caps out of poster board, using yarn or wool for a homemade tassel.
Let students share their Head Start experiences in a performance. Talk to the class about favorite songs or poems they have learned during their time in the program and present a few class favorites as part of the graduation ceremony. Briefly interview each student before the graduation about what they learned in Head Start and what they are looking forward to learning in kindergarten and read each child's thoughts when graduation certificates are issued, or allow each child to share her own comments on graduation day.
Invite all of the students' teachers and classroom helpers to attend the ceremony. Share a special memory or two about the class or each individual student. Offer special words of encouragement to each student as he receives his diploma and note a positive trait that the student has shown during his time at Head Start.
Collect all photographs and videotapes that parents, teachers and staff members have taken of the students throughout their time in the Head Start program. Put all the memories together into a graduation video, highlighting the special activities and memories from the children's time in the program. If you have enough pictures, create an individual scrapbook for each child with samples of her work, pictures of her throughout the year and special quotes and memories from her friends and teachers.