A graduation party tends to run long, with guests arriving and leaving at different times across an afternoon, which makes it different to plan for than a party where everyone shows up at once. The games that work best are the ones that don't need the whole room at the same time.
Get the grad's answers before the party starts
A How Well Do You Know the Grad quiz, where they answer a set of questions first and guests try to match them, only works if it's filled out ahead of time. The same goes for a set of ten-year predictions (where will they be living, what job will they have), which are more fun read back at the actual ten-year mark than they are on the day itself, so keep a copy somewhere safe.
Bingo for a party with a rolling guest list
Because graduation parties often run as a drop-in open house rather than a single seated event, a bingo card built around things that happen at every grad party (someone asks "so what's next," a relative takes way too many photos) is the right kind of game: it works whether a guest is there for twenty minutes or the whole afternoon.
Trivia and a word scramble for the table
Twenty graduation trivia questions, on the actual history behind caps, gowns and tassels, plus a matching word scramble, both with answer keys, give guests something to do at a table without needing the whole party's attention at once.
Would You Rather for life after graduation
A deck of Would You Rather cards built around life-after-graduation dilemmas is an easy way to fill the gaps between arrivals, and it works for a mixed-age crowd of relatives, classmates and family friends without anyone needing to know the grad especially well.
Advice and a time capsule instead of just a guestbook
Set out advice cards and time capsule cards on a side table with a basket and a sealed box nearby. Guests fill them in whenever they have a free minute over the course of the party, and the time capsule becomes something the grad can open years later instead of a guestbook that gets read once and put in a drawer.
Running the party
Get the grad's quiz and predictions answered before the party. Let bingo run the whole afternoon since guests will be coming and going. Run trivia and the Would You Rather deck whenever a cluster of guests settles in, and keep the advice basket and time capsule box out from the first guest to the last, since this is the one game that doesn't depend on timing at all.
Our Graduation Party Games kit has all of this ready to print: eight games, 20 fact-checked Graduation Trivia questions with an answer key, How Well Do You Know the Grad, ten-year Grad Predictions, six bingo cards and time capsule cards, for 6 to 60 guests.