Make a Time Capsule!

We’ve all seen the movies where a group of kids dig up a mysterious box only to find treasures from the past inside. Wouldn’t your third grader love to tell future generations of kids what it was like to live in 2008? In the process, she will form a concrete understanding of what it means to set a purpose and consider the audience--two common language arts goals that can seem somewhat vague to students. Ask your third grader to reflect on the year 2008, gather her cool stuff and create a time capsule. Don’t worry - she won’t lose any of her valuable treasures in this activity. Instead, she’ll gain some valuable writing tools!

What You Need:

Shoe box

Construction paper

Glue stick

Markers

Magazines

What You Do:

1. Explain the time capsule project to your child: one hundred years from now, in 2108, third graders will want to know what it was like to be a third grader in 2008. She can send a message to these kids of the future by creating a time capsule in which she describes all the things third graders love to do!

2. The next step is to gather the items for the time capsule. Your child should make a list of favorite activities, hobbies, sports, friends, school subjects, technology, etc… Then she should use magazine clippings, photos or drawings that represent her favorite things. Glue each picture onto construction paper and cut it out to make a border. Next to the picture, your child should write a 2-3 sentence description of the picture, what it represents and why it’s important to her.