How to Make a Time Capsule for Kids Ideas

My kids are still little, but they love looking back on things that they created when they were really little. We created this time capsule for kids to record important things about themselves and some fun items to look back on, such as a letter to their future self.

I love holding onto keepsakes that my children spent time on and records their thoughts and special things about them.

If you have ever wondered how to make a time capsule for kids, you will find lots of ideas below and even a FREE All About Me Printable. (Link at Bottom)

I created a collection of pages to put in our time capsules, but you can use any sheets or questions that you want to include. Some ideas of great things to include in a time capsule include:

What do you want to be when you grow up?
What is your favourite memory from this year?
Is there something you hope changes before you open this time capsule?
Who are your closest friends?
What is your favourite movie, food, subject, activity, season, animal?
A traced handprint/footprint
Special objects or photographs

The more questions children answer the better. Every answer is something fun to look back on and remember.

There are 7 pages in the printable that I used for my time capsule ideas, and created, but you can use any pages or keepsakes to include in your capsule.

I created this time capsule for kids at home with my kids and will be using it in my classroom this year with the students I teach.

Whether you homeschool or are a teacher, a time capsule is a wonderful way to record a period in time for your child. It is also a great way to get kids writing with a purpose.

I typically have kids create the time capsule at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the year children open their time capsule and look back on everything they wrote. It makes for a great day!

It was also something special for parents to look through with their child when it was sent home, and in many cases parents then stored it to open again in many years.

Creating your Time Capsule for Kids

Below are some time capsule ideas of how you can create your own time capsule for kids at home or in the classroom.

The first thing you need for your time capsule for kids are printed pages for children to either fill out or blank pages for children to add their own ideas and answers.

Next, you need something to store your pages and keepsakes in. I used a cylinder food container. Ideally whatever you use has a lid to keep your pages secure. If you don’t have a cylinder, even a large envelope will work.

Finally, you will need arts and crafts materials to decorate the time capsule for kids.

Time Capsule Ideas

We started by filling out the sheets in the ‘Time Capsule for Kids’ package. My kids enjoyed writing about themselves and talking about their answers together.

I had collected a few cylinder chip containers that we reused for the container of our time capsule.

These containers work perfectly for this project and are an inexpensive option for the classroom too.

I set out a variety of arts and craft materials for my kids to begin creating and decorating their time capsule containers.

They added pictures of things they liked and they had freedom to decorate it any way they wanted.

One of my favorite things that we included in the time capsules is a ribbon that measures their height.

After measuring, I attached the ribbon to one of the time capsule pages. This is a cute way to keep the ribbon secure and it is an adorable keepsake.

Tracing children’s feet and hand prints are another thing that I always like to include.

Once the containers were decorated and all of the pages were filled out, we put the sheets inside the containers.

We then added a few photograph and a few other small toys and keepsakes that my children wanted to include.

We then closed the containers and sealed them up. My kids decided that they wanted to open their time capsules in twenty years.

(We will see if they are able to wait that long, but either way, I know that when they do open it again we have lots to look through.)

Time capsules are a great activity to do at any time of year. I often create them at the beginning of the year at school and New Years at home with my own children.

Time capsules are a fun way to record a time in history and even looking back at your child’s printing is interesting and fun. Happy creating!

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More Time Capsule Ideas

There are lots that you can do with your time capsule! Photographs or special pieces of art are also a great addition to any time capsule. My kids loved creating their time capsules and I am looking forward to my students creating one this year too. Happy Creating!

I have also done “growing” time capsules for kids where we did not fully seal the container and each year we added a small envelope or package with new things we wanted to add.

This is a great ideas for growing children to add something new each month to create a time capsule for a year in their life.