Time Capsules

Well, shoe-shopping/teacher friends, this next post won't feature a pair of shoes, but I 'll share something shoe-related.  Look what I found over at Kirkland's the other day:

This is supposed to be a piggy bank.  My husband gladly bought it for me because he thought it might inspire me to actually save for the shoes.  Little did he know this actually makes me want to buy more shoes.  I took it to school and put it on my desk. It tells more about me!

I had the students in my class tell more about each other with a Time Capsule activity we do every year. 


We start out with a Pringles can.

  I send home a letter on the second day of school listing the items parents need to send:

• a sealed letter writtten to their child (wishing them a great year, offering encouragement, sharing memories)
• trinkets that represent their child's interests/hobbies (usually these are keychains, or small objects)
• paper, stickers, etc. to decorate the outside of the can

In class, we write a list of 10 goals.  We also include a list of our favorites at the time:  favorite movie, favorite book, favorite foods, etc.
They end up looking something like this:

  We also include a piece of string that represents the student's height.

I 'bury' them, then pull them out on the last day of school.  The students usually forget about them, and they love opening them. They especially love reading the letters from their parents. 

I know many of my teacher/blogger friends use this project. What other ideas can you share?