Made for the teacher workroom
This page is for teachers, aides, PTA volunteers, librarians and the bus driver who needs a stack of awards by Friday. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. Pick a design, type straight onto the certificate, and print one copy or thirty.
What to recognize
Grade-level awards are the obvious ones: Student of the Month, Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, Most Improved. The certificates that get kept are the ones that name something specific the student did:
- Effort and habits: Homework Hero, Neatest Notebook, Most Questions Asked, Quiet Leader.
- Subject wins: Reading Challenge finisher, Spelling Bee champion or finalist, Science Fair entrant, Math Facts Master.
- Classroom citizenship: Kindness Award, Line Leader of the Year, Best Classroom Helper, Welcoming Committee for a new student.
- End of year: one award per student, each naming a real strength. Twenty-five different titles take longer to think up than to print.
For music students, the band-themed designs in the grid above carry music notes in the border; everything else is general-purpose.
Wording that reads well out loud
Awards get read aloud in front of the class, so write the description the way you would say it: "For reading 42 books this year and recommending half of them to the rest of us." One or two sentences is enough. Put the student's full name on the line, not a nickname, because a certificate with a full name ends up on a refrigerator and later in a keepsake box.
Sign it yourself, with your title under your name. A second signature line (principal, specialist, coach) is there if you want it.
Paper and printing for a class set
- Plain copier paper is fine for a weekly award. For end-of-year awards, a 50-pack of heavier cream or white card stock from the office-supply aisle makes a noticeable difference.
- Set the printer to landscape before printing or the certificate comes out small on a portrait page. The printing tips page shows where that setting lives on Mac and Windows.
- If the school printer is black-and-white, choose a greyscale design (the greyscale band or circles designs) rather than printing a pale version of a color border; the chalkboard is a dark design and is meant for a color printer.
- Print one, check it, then print the rest. Names are the thing most often misspelled.
Free, for the whole class
Every design here is free to use for as many students as you have. No login, no email address, nothing to upgrade. Your text stays in your own browser between visits, so you can come back next month, change the name and the award, and print again.
