Graduation season is here—a time filled with laughter, reflection, and heartfelt goodbyes. For students, it’s both an end and a new beginning. For teachers, it’s a proud moment to celebrate growth.
Why not take your students on a global journey this season? Explore unique graduation traditions while sparking curiosity and meaningful English practice!
🌍 Unique Graduation Traditions Around the World
🇯🇵 Japan: A Button from the Heart
Students give the “second button” from their uniform to someone they like. Since it’s closest to the heart, it symbolizes emotional sincerity and affection.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Latin Blessings and Academic Gowns
UK graduations are steeped in tradition. Ceremonies often feature Latin blessings and formal academic gowns (often rented due to the cost!).
🇰🇷 South Korea: Flour Storms and Cosplay
Students toss flour, crack eggs on uniforms, and dress up in cosplay as their favorite characters to celebrate freedom from school rules.
🇦🇷 Argentina: Joyful Mess
Graduates get “blessed” with sticky mixtures of flour, syrup, and sauces by friends—a messy but loving send-off!
🧑🏫 Graduation-Themed Classroom Activities: Capture the Moment with English
Graduation season is the perfect time for emotional expression and self-reflection. Here are four classroom activities that guide students to speak and write about their memories and messages—capturing them in English.
1. Thank You Speech
Encourage students to express gratitude to teachers, friends, or family members through short speeches or recordings. It’s a great way to combine emotional development with language skills.
📌 Suggested phrases:
- “Thank you for always being there for me.”
- “I’m really grateful for your support.”
2. Time Travel Letter – A Message to My Future Self
Ask students to write a letter to their future selves (e.g., 5 years from now or on the first day of university). They can talk about their current dreams, friendships, and goals for the future.
📌 Suggested phrases:
- “I hope you still remember…”
- “I wonder if you have become…”
- “Please don’t forget to…”
🔄 Extended activity: Use Sensay to create a speaking exercise. Save the voice messages as a time capsule to revisit in the future.
3. Farewell Interview
Pair up students to interview each other about their graduation thoughts and future plans. Provide question prompts or sentence cards to guide the conversation.
📌 Suggested questions:
- “What will you miss the most?”
- “Do you have a message for your teacher?”
- “What are you excited about next?”
🔄 Extended activity: Use Sensay to record the paired conversations. This helps train question/answer skills and can also serve as a final bonus task.
4. Sensay Graduation Practice Pack
Sensay offers level-based speaking and vocabulary tasks (A1–C2) on graduation memories and future goals, ready for teachers to assign to their students! Sign up as a Sensay teacher by June 20, 2025 to get the Sensay Graduation Practice Pack sent straight to your inbox!
Part 1: Vocabulary + Sentence Practice
Each level includes graduation-themed vocabulary and simple sentence structures to get students speaking.
- A1–A2: graduation, happy, thank you, my teacher is nice.
- B1–B2: memories, future plans, I’m thankful for…, I learned a lot.
- C1–C2: milestone, gratitude, I’ll carry these lessons with me into the future.
Part 2: My Best Memory in School
Reading-with-images task focused on describing meaningful school moments.
🔹 A1–A2 Beginner
Goal: Describe a happy memory in simple sentences.
Keywords: play, trip, teacher, birthday
🔸 B1–B2 Intermediate
Goal: Provide background and emotions using past tense.
Keywords: project, competition, celebration, surprise, teamwork
🔺 C1–C2 Advanced
Goal: Combine feelings, gratitude, and reflection in complex sentences.
Keywords: achievement, support, connection, meaningful, inspiration
Part 3: Goal Setting – My Future Dreams and Plans
Open-ended speaking task focused on expressing future goals.
🔹 A1–A2 Beginner
Goal: Use simple sentences to talk about future hopes.
Keywords: want, be, do, help, future
🔸 B1–B2 Intermediate
Goal: Explain goals, reasons, and basic plans.
Keywords: goal, study, improve, plan, challenge
🔺 C1–C2 Advanced
Goal: Express aspirations with personal reflection and values.
Keywords: aspiration, impact, responsibility, passion, growth
🎈 Make Graduation Unforgettable with English
Graduation is more than just changing classrooms — it’s a time to say goodbye, express thanks, and dream big. Let’s help students create meaningful English memories they’ll carry into the future.
As teachers, let’s make the most of this moment. Turn language lessons into life lessons, and help students leave with not just better English, but also beautiful memories they’ll carry into the future.
#Graduation #HappyGraduation #GraduationSeason #EnglishSpeaking #SpeakingPractice #AIinEducation #Sensay