Creating and storing a time capsule is a fun way to start and end the school year. Time capsules capture a snapshot of your students and their lives. The key to a good time capsule is purpose: making sure that every item is included for a reason and will resonate with students when they open it later in the year or later in life. Check out our time capsule ideas and choose the one that feels right for your class and timeline.
FREE PRINTABLE
Free Printable Time Capsule Ideas
If you are ready to start your time capsule with your class, grab our free time capsule ideas sheet to make it all the easier to plan out exactly what to include in your time capsule.
How To Plan a Time Capsule With a Wow Factor
Time capsules are tricky because the most effective ones are “planted” one day and opened months or years later. To create a time capsule project that has a real wow factor:
- Collaborate: If you want to have students open their time capsule years later, reach out to a teacher in a higher grade who could commit to having the same generation of students open the time capsule when students get to, say, 3rd grade.
- Focus on right now: Have students gather and encapsulate items that are very specific to the day and time they are buying them. So, articles with dates on them or pictures of a silly hairstyle they wear today. Then, even if they’re opening the time capsule a few months later, the items will have relevance.
- Involve the community: Ask parents and community members to contribute. Adding more perspectives and memories will make the time capsule contents more important.
- Set an end date: When you create the time capsule, make sure you have a clear date of when you will open it to revisit the contents. It could be at the end of this school year, before students graduate from the school, or even later.
- Consider the conditions: Make sure your time capsule will withstand water and weather. Pack it in a durable box or jar, and store it in a safe and dry place that is easy to access.
Time Capsule Ideas
Check out these ideas for what to include in your time capsule, and download our visual checklist for inspiration.
Personal items
- Student self-portraits
- A photo or drawing of a favorite toy
- A photo or drawing of kids’ favorite outfits
- Drawings or actual covers of kids’ favorite books
- Photos with a caption written on the back
- A hand or foot print (best for younger children)
- Keepsake or photo memory from their last birthday party
- A length of ribbon that is the length of each child to show how tall they are right now
- Description or picture of one thing they can’t do … yet
Current events
- Newspaper headlines and clippings
- Magazine article
- Online news printout
- The school newspaper
- Recording of the school greeting
- A coin from the year you are in
- A photo of the view from kids’ bedrooms or the classroom
Cultural items
- The most popular toy of the moment (at this writing, that may be a capybara toy)
- A popular book
- Portrait of an important person
- A poster or post from a popular event
- Class graphs of favorites (favorite food, favorite singer, etc.)
School-related items
- Papers or assignments
- Art projects
- Certificates
- Photos of school events
- First-day-of-school memories
- A floor plan of your classroom
Personal reflections
- Have students write a letter to their future selves.
- Students write a bucket list of things they want to accomplish between now and when they revisit the time capsule.
- Ask parents to write a letter to their child to be read when the time capsule is opened.
- Have each student complete an All About Me page.
- Have each student compose an “I Am” Poem.
- Have students each complete a list of things they like about themselves.
Get your free Time Capsule Ideas printable!
Ready to start your time capsule? Grab our free printable time capsule sheet to get started.
Check out more beginning-of-the-year rituals to start the school year off right.
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