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Get Straight A’s on Your Child’s GRADUATION PARTY
By Penny Warner

After years of teachers and textbooks, it’s time to reap the benefits from all that studying! Hosting a goodbye to grades celebration doesn’t require a lot of pomp and circumstance. Choose a theme for the party, such as “Forever Summer Vacation” with a luau theme, “Welcome to the Jungle” with a rainforest theme, “Smooth Sailing” with a nautical touch, or “Show Me the Money” with a financial angle to the party. Then follow these easy tips to make your graduation celebration a class act.

Grade A Invitations

1. Write the party details with a calligraphy pen on white parchment, then roll it up and tie with ribbons using school colors.

2. Make mortarboard (graduation cap) invitations from black cardstock tied with a tassel, and write details in silver ink.

3. Make personalized report cards with party details included—and give everyone straight A’s in “Partying 101.”

4. Include a kindergarten picture of the graduate, along with their senior picture, for a “Before” and “After” invitation.

Grad Games and Activities

Whatever Happened to: Write funny predictions about guests, such as, “Matt Warner, captain of the football team, now has his own chain of drop-in brain surgery clinics.” Insert them in balloons and inflate the balloon, write the names of the guests on the balloons, then have them pop the balloons to find out their funny futures.

After-School Snacks: Have “cafeteria helpers” wearing aprons and hairnets serve classic cafeteria food (only better!) on plastic trays. Give each dish an “appetizing” name card, such as “Meat Surprise” or “Broccoli Jell-O.”

Offer popular school foods, such as pizzas, hamburgers and sodas. Serve them from lunch boxes and pour drinks from thermoses.

Grad Gifts & Party Prizes

Give the graduate a scrapbook to safeguard school memories, a personalized engraved pen set, a keychain with a “key to the future,” a funny tie to wear to work, an autograph book to collect good wishes from the guests, a cartoon lunch box, personalized business cards, a new wallet, a name plate, or a nice briefcase filled with want-ads or job applications.

Send the guests home with grad hats, clappers, and megaphones, “Class of 2008” photo frames with group pictures, pens engraved with the school name, autograph books, or job-hunting books.

Penny Warner has more than 25 years of experience as an author and party planner. She has published more than 50 books, including 16 specific to parties. For more information, visit www.BalloonTime.com.