Celebrating Your Inner Child

You’re never too old to be a kid! With your class, explore all the best parts from your childhoods by creating a giant capsule of all your favorite memories.

Start the unit off by sharing a photo of you as a child and sharing a memory that accompanies it. Then, prompt your students to find memorabilia from when they were younger, like a picture, toy or memento. If students can’t find any physical objects from their past, they may choose a song they used to listen to or a dance they used to perform with their friends. In groups, ask students to share what they brought and connect it to one memory from their childhood.

After students have shared, choose a space in the room to assemble everyone’s memories. Ask students to glue, tape or place their’ memorabilia next to each other on a giant poster board or write down words that evoke what they shared. Next, decorate the station with markers, cutouts, fabric or pictures that you print out from online that remind you of nostalgic times.

Afterwards, do a gallery walk of your class’s childhood capsule and have each student write about how looking at these memories makes them feel. This spot in your classroom will represent everyone’s inner child. Revisit it throughout the year by playing music and games from different students’ pasts!