Are you looking for graduation ceremony ideas and wondering what you can do to personalize it for your class? Why not have the kids perform some of their favorite scenes from the books or plays they’ve studied in high school.

After homeschooling my kids for 20 years, we have found a lot of fun ways to fit drama into our homeschool and love to share what we've done with you. 

Personalize Your Graduation Ceremony With Drama

My daughter was part of a class of 12 students. They really loved drama and took advantage of every opportunity they could to act out scenes from the plays and literature that they studied. When it came time to plan out the graduation ceremony, drama had to be a part of it. 

They broke down the event into two parts: drama and music performances; then the actual graduation ceremony. For the first half students shared their gifts with the violin, piano, singing and drama. For this to happen the kids had to take ownership and practice on their own. There was not enough time in a one day a week class to fit it in.

As they presented the dramatic pieces, most of which were from various Shakespeare plays, two of the boys started it off with a sword fight acted out in the center aisle of the audience. They had a whole fight scene choreographed and convincing looking swords to clash back and forth. It was a hit and really got the audience into the scene. 

Some of the girls decided to perform a scene from Much Ado About Nothing where Ursula and Hero are trying to trick Beatrice into believing that Benedick likes her. They know she is hiding in the garden, so they get close enough to her so she can overhear what they are saying. Hero informs Ursula that the men have said that Benedick likes Beatrice. But Hero says it would be better for Benedick to be alone then to have to deal with her scorn, while Ursula suggests Beatrice is way too smart and sensitive to reject such a handsome man. They giggle while leaving hoping their trick worked.

Meanwhile, it is hilarious to watch Beatrice's reactions from behind the bush as she hears this conversation. 

When they leave, Beatrice comes out of hiding wondering what to do with this newfound knowledge that Benedick likes her. She realizes she should get rid of her scorn and return his love as he is a good option for her to marry. Hmmm. Sounds a bit familiar. 😃

How to Add Drama to Your Graduation Ceremony

The whole play is humorous, but having only a little time to present, it's best to choose a scene that doesn’t need a lot of background so that the audience can follow along even if they don’t know the whole story. Hearing this conversation is enough to tell the story.

Fight scenes are also a great choice because the audience loves the action and the bantering back and forth between the characters even if they don't know all that led up to the fight.

The nice thing about either of these scenes is that it doesn’t require a lot of props, scenery, or elaborate costumes. In the scene above the students wore the clothes they planned to wear for the graduation ceremony with their caps and gowns. This also kept it simple as the students moved from one performance to the next. 

After their performances they put on their caps and gowns and the graduation ceremony began.

Additional Tips and Benefits of Adding Drama to Your Graduation Ceremony

You can fit drama into your homeschool even at the graduation ceremony. The wonderful thing about holding a homeschool graduation ceremony is that you can personalize it. It’s not just about kids flying across the stage, shaking a hand and receiving their diploma. You can make it special by sharing their gifts and maybe even a slideshow of each of them growing up or as a class if they’ve been together for a while. Parents love to celebrate with their students in this special event, why not personalize it even more with some drama. 

You can add drama to your graduation ceremony:

• Have students share their gifts and perform short scenes from literature or plays they have done in the past. 

• Encourage students to take ownership and make it their own while ensuring they finish well with their studies. 

• Keep it simple by not worrying about elaborate scenery and scene changes.

• It can be done and is so beautiful when it all comes together on graduation day.

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Danielle at homeschooldrama.com