A Great Way To Teach Change: The Time Capsule
No matter what grade I am teaching, from 1st to 5th, every year I create a time capsule with my students. Each child completes their own information sheet, including details about their favorite activities, hopes and fears. We then seal them into a folder and hide them in the classroom. In June, we dig it out and compare ourselves to how we were mere months before. And we get a very dramatic lesson in change.
Well, this past year it went really well. In the middle of the State Social Studies Test (how ironic), my assistant principal told me to come down to the office to see something.
Since last spring, the auditorium at our school had been undergoing renovations, and on that day in November, the construction workers found a time capsule in the wall, placed there when the school was constructed in the early 1900’s. It included a typed history of the school, a school medal, songs, pamphlets from school events and more. It was sealed in a copper box. After the test, we showed it to my kids, and eventually staff members from the New York Historical Society (NYHS) came to our school to teach us about the time capsule. But my kids already had a head start.
Our principal felt it was important to give the documents to the NYHS, which we did, and they are on display there now. But she also felt it was important that we put something back into the wall for future generations to read.
My 5th grade class wrote about different topics such as current events, curriculum we are studying, a normal day for a 5th grader in New York City and predictions we had for the future, and back in the wall it went. In early January, 2009, we were invited to visit our school’s time capsule with a cadre of local politicians and journalists. You can read about us in The New York Times and The Villager or watch the video from The New York Post website.
So, what’s the lesson here? Time capsules rule! Make one of your own with your kids! The questions my students answer for theirs are the following:
How old are you?
How tall are you?
How far can you broad jump?
How long can you hold your breath?
What are your favorite books or movies?
What is your most prized possession?
What are your fears about the school year?
What are your hopes and dreams for this school year?
Write anything else you would like to see in June.
Make up questions for your family. Without fail, the kids will love it. And it teaches an invaluable lesson about how we change as individuals, not just physically, but emotionally and intellectually as well. Change is an inevitable part of life. Recognizing this at a young age is a true gift.
September 15th, 2009
[...] later on in the year to see if any of those hopes and dreams have been achieved. It’s like a time capsule of winter’s hopes and dreams. [...]