For a class

Create a Classroom Time Capsule

A classroom time capsule is a sealed collection of pupils' letters, drawings, answers, photos and recordings, assembled by their teacher and set to open on a date the class chooses — the last day of the school year, the end of primary or secondary school, or a reunion ten years on. The teacher uploads the class's work, seals it, and it stays locked until that date.

A shoebox on top of the cupboard works until the classroom is repainted, the teacher changes school, or someone needs a shoebox.

A digital capsule does the remembering for you: it opens on its date whether or not anyone still knows where the box went. This page is written for teachers, and covers how to run one, what to put in it, and what to check before you upload a single child's work.

Create your classroom time capsule What a digital time capsule is

Children's hands putting drawings and folded letters into a brass time capsule on a classroom table covered in crayons

Why a class is the right size for a time capsule

A school year is a closed world with a fixed end. Thirty people spend ten months in one room, grow a shoe size, and then scatter. That is as close to a natural time capsule as anything gets.

It is also a lesson that plans itself. Writing to a future reader is a real writing task with a real audience. Predicting next June is an exercise in estimating. Reading the letters back in June is one of the few moments when pupils can see their own progress without being told about it.

And it costs nothing to try. A capsule that opens within a year is free, which covers the whole of a school year.

Three shapes, by opening date

Decide when it opens before anyone writes a word. The date changes what is worth putting in.

September to June
Sealed in the first weeks of term, opened on the last day. The easiest one to run, because the class is still together to open it and you are still their teacher. It opens within a year, so it is free.
The end of a school cycle
Sealed in the first year of primary or secondary school, opened in the last. The handwriting alone is worth the wait. It needs an owner who will still be at the school, or a colleague named as a second recipient.
Ten years on
Sealed in the final year, opened at a reunion when the pupils are adults. The letters change character: they are no longer schoolwork, and they should be written knowing that.

You can run the first and the third with the same class: a free capsule for June, and a second one, with a letter each, for the reunion.

Running it as a lesson

Two sessions and a date in the diary. It does not need to be a term-long project.

One session to write

Give everyone the same questions, and a letter to their future self. The same questions for all is what makes the opening work: the class can compare, and so can each pupil with their own earlier answers.

One session to collect

Scan or photograph the work, record the sound you want, and gather it in one folder. Nothing is recorded on our site — you record on a school device or your own, and upload the files.

A fixed sealing date

Announce it and keep it. Once sealed, a capsule cannot be edited, added to or opened early by anyone, so the pupil who was absent that week needs a catch-up slot before, not after.

A calendar entry and a named colleague

Put the opening date in the school calendar, not only your own, and add a colleague as a second recipient. The capsule opens by itself; somebody still has to be expecting it.

An opening worth the wait

Project it. Read a few letters aloud with their authors' permission, play the recording of the class in September, and let everyone find their own page. Then download everything, because the capsule only stays open for the window you chose.

Classroom time capsule ideas

Enough for one capsule is about a third of this list.

From each pupil

A letter to themselves on the opening day
A self-portrait, dated, and a sample of their best handwriting
Three predictions: about themselves, about the class, about the world
Their current favourites — book, song, game, food, a friend's joke
What they find hard now and expect to find easy by then
Their height against the door frame, written down rather than photographed

About the class

A recording of the whole class singing, reciting or simply saying good morning
The class rules, the jobs rota and the jokes only this class understands
A photo of the classroom walls and the view from the window
The timetable, the reading list and what is for lunch on Thursdays
A letter from you to the class, which they do not get to read until it opens

About the year and the world

What things cost: a loaf, a bus ticket, a packet of football stickers
The songs everyone knows and the games played at break
The front page of a newspaper on sealing day, photographed
What the class thinks will have been invented by the time it opens
What they would like the adults to have sorted out by then

Scans and photographs of written work take very little storage. Video is what fills a capsule, so keep clips short and few.

Seal it in September, open it in June

A capsule that opens within the school year is free. Create it now, add the class's work as it is ready, and seal it on the date you announced.

Create your classroom time capsule

Who receives a class capsule

Pupils usually have no inbox of their own, and our terms require users to be at least 13, or older where the local age of digital consent is higher. So pupils are not the recipients and they do not create accounts: you are the capsule's single author, and everything reaches them through you.

Address the capsule to yourself and to a school address. Recipients are emailed when the capsule is sealed and again on the opening day, when you share the link or the QR code with families so that each child can see and download their own work at home. Parents added as recipients by email are likewise emailed when the capsule is sealed as well as when it opens, so add them only if you want them told straight away that a capsule is waiting.

For a long horizon, add a personal address as well as the school one. School addresses stop working when staff move on, and a capsule that opens in ten years should not depend on an inbox that was closed in two. After sealing, no recipient can be added, so decide this before you lock it.

Storage, price and sealing

A capsule that opens within a year is free and includes 300 MB, which is plenty for a class's scanned letters, drawings and a few short audio recordings. Longer capsules are a single payment, with no subscription, priced by how far ahead they open, and include 1 GB; more storage is a one-time fee.

Paid purchases must be made by an adult, which in a school means you or the school office. There is nothing for pupils or parents to pay or sign up to.

You can delete a capsule you created at any time, sealed or not — useful to know if a family withdraws consent after the fact. What you cannot do is edit one after sealing, so removing a piece of work means deleting the capsule and sealing a corrected one.

See every tier and price →

The box on the shelf as well

Plenty of classes do both, and they are right to. A physical box holds what a file cannot: the actual paper, a pencil worn to a stub, the class mascot's spare scarf. The digital capsule holds what a box cannot: voices, video, and an opening date that does not rely on anyone remembering.

If you fill a box, choose the container and the contents with some care. School time capsules tend to fail from damp, from sticky tape, or from being lost in a building project.

How to make a time capsule that survives →

Classroom capsule questions

What is a classroom time capsule?

It is a collection of a class's letters, drawings, answers, photos and recordings, sealed by their teacher and opened on a chosen date — typically the last day of the school year, the end of a school cycle, or a reunion years later. A digital one unlocks automatically on its date and emails the recipients.

Is a classroom time capsule free?

If it opens within a year, yes: that covers a capsule sealed in September and opened in June, with 300 MB of storage included. Capsules that open further ahead are a single payment made by an adult, priced by how far ahead they open, with 1 GB included.

Can pupils add their own work to the capsule?

Not directly. A capsule has a single author, and our terms require users to be at least 13. The teacher creates the capsule, scans or photographs the pupils' work, records any sound on a device of their own, and uploads the files before sealing.

Do I need parents' permission for a class time capsule?

Follow your school's policy first. Our terms require the consent of a parent or guardian for any media that depicts a minor, so photos, video and identifiable voices need it. The simplest approach is to keep to written work, drawings and first names, and to protect the capsule with a password that you give to families.

Who should receive a class time capsule?

The teacher and a school address, since pupils rarely have an inbox of their own. Recipients are emailed when the capsule is sealed and again when it opens, and on opening day the teacher shares the capsule's link or QR code with families. For a capsule that opens years later, add a personal address too, because school addresses change when staff move on and recipients cannot be added after sealing.

What should a class put in a time capsule?

A letter from each pupil to their future self, a dated self-portrait and handwriting sample, predictions, current favourites, a group recording of the class, photos of the classroom, what everyday things cost, and a letter from the teacher. Scanned work takes little storage; keep video short.

Give the class a date to look forward to

Collect the work, seal it, and let the last day of term do the rest.

Create your classroom time capsule How it works

Pay once — yours to download and keep on opening day.