One of my favorite "First Day of School" activities is one I started two years ago now. We have a free teacher store in our town where people can donate supplies as well as random things that you can just "do stuff with." A teacher's mind is always working like that, it seems! You see trash, and I see treasure. That's why TLC should probably start a Hoarders: Teachers Edition because we quickly run out of places to store said trash...er...treasure. Anyway...
I found a bunch of empty Pringles cans at this teacher store and wanted to know what I could do with them. It then dawned on me to have the students create time capsules out of them on the first day of school, filling them with information about themselves in August, and then we would keep them in the room all year and open them on the last day of school.
I have several little activities that the students complete for their time capsules.
On white paper, they trace one of their feet and one of their hands.
With ribbon or yarn, I measure their heights from their feet to their heads and cut the string so that it is a representation of how tall they are at the beginning of the year. This is especially fun for the end of the year because they get something tangible to show how much they have grown in a year...and 4th graders grow a LOT!
I have the students write a letter to themselves, and they have to ask themselves a couple of questions. A lot of them ask things like, "Is Maddy still your best friend?", "What did you think of Mrs. E?", "Are you still bad at math?" << that one pops up a lot!
Lastly, the students fill out a little questionnaire about their current favorites, friends, and family members. We also fill in a few questions about the price of a gallon of gas and some other "historical" type questions.
They use another sheet of white paper for the outside of their time capsules. The standard computer paper tends to fit the time capsules just about right. They design the paper and put their names on them, and then we tape them to the Pringles cans.
Taking a picture of each student on the first day and then printing them for the students to include in their time capsules is also a really nice thing to do!
We have a great time completing these time capsules, and they are really easy to store for the rest of the year. I use a couple large shopping bags and just gently layer them in on their sides. The kids are always excited to open them up on the last day of school, and I think they are also fun artifacts for the parents.
I have attached my questionnaire that the students fill out for you to download if you'd like!
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