Graduation Coloring Pages

Graduation is the one school day everybody remembers, whether it is the end of preschool, kindergarten, fifth grade, high school or college. These graduation coloring pages cover the whole day, from the gown hanging in the wardrobe in the morning to the gifts on the table in the evening, with a few animal graduates for the youngest.

The ceremony comes first. Caps fly through the air above the lawn, rows of chairs wait in front of a stage and its microphone, a bouquet and a wrapped gift save a seat, a camera stands ready on its tripod, and a marching band crosses the stadium field. A Congratulations banner hangs across the school gym between bunches of balloons, and a Class Of board is pinned with graduates' photos and rosette ribbons, with room to write the year underneath.

The animal graduates are drawn for younger children: a teddy bear holding up a diploma on stage, a puppy on a park bench with a bouquet, a bunny climbing the steps to collect its scroll, a fox carrying a stack of books past a clock tower, and a duck waddling down a path lined with flags. A kitten falls asleep on a cap, and a cap sits on top of a globe between piles of books.

Then the goodbyes to school: a cap and a rolled diploma on a school desk, lockers being emptied into a moving box, an empty classroom with the chairs stacked on the desks, a backpack left against an empty desk, the trophy case, the yearbook on a desk, a school bus decorated with ribbons, and the school gate tied with a big bow. And the party: a cake with a cap on top, cupcakes with little caps, a garden tea table, a picnic on the campus lawn, a photo frame with balloons, a vintage car packed with suitcases, a tree hung with caps, a table of gifts with a Guest Book, a cap being decorated with stars, a wall of certificates, and a letter arriving in the mailbox.

A page for every graduation

The same day looks very different at four and at eighteen, and the pages sort themselves easily. For preschool and kindergarten graduations, the animal graduates and the kitten on the cap are the ones to print: big shapes, friendly faces, not much in the background. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Kitten on the cap
• Duck graduate
• Bear graduate

For older children and graduates themselves, the busier scenes are more fun to spend time on: the marching band, the trophy case, the gym with its banner, the campus with its clock tower. Lots of detail begins with:

• Gift table
• Saved seats
• Ready for the photo

Colors that belong to the day

Graduation has its own palette, and a few details make a page look right:

• The gown and cap are usually the school's color. Black and navy are the most common, but many schools use maroon, royal blue, green or white. Coloring the gown in the real school color makes the page personal at once.
• The tassel is often in the school colors too, sometimes gold for honors. In many American ceremonies graduates move it from the right side of the cap to the left once they have their diploma.
• The diploma is cream or white, tied with a ribbon in the school color.
• Balloons and bunting can pick up the same two school colors, which ties the whole page together.

A graduate who colors a page in their own school's colors has made something no store sells.

What to do with the finished pages

Graduation pages are more useful after coloring than most. The Class Of board has a blank for the year: fill it in and the page becomes a keepsake. The Guest Book page works as a real guest book cover at the party. A colored page folded in half is a card to slip in with a gift, and the cap on the globe makes a good one for a graduate who is moving away. Teachers often use these pages on the last week of school, when the classroom is being packed up and a quiet activity is welcome; the empty classroom and lockers pages are a gentle way to talk about what comes next.

Printing for the big day

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so every cap and tassel stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole party's worth of pages into one file. A thank you page for the teacher is in the teacher coloring pages, more party pages in the happy birthday coloring pages, pages to share with classmates in the friendship coloring pages, and the holidays that follow in the summer coloring pages.