Dear Kids of the Future

Types of poetry

Preview the Art and the Poem (15 minutes)

• Look at the page together. What items do kids notice in the art? (a teddy bear, crayons, a newspaper, etc.) What do they notice about the poem? (It looks like a letter.)

Preview Vocabulary (1-3 minutes)

• Play the online vocabulary slideshow. This poem’s featured word is glimpse.

• You can read the poem to the class first to model fluency and get kids familiar with the language. You can also click the Read Aloud button at the top of the digital issue to hear it read aloud by a professional voice actor.
• Then call on volunteers to read every two lines of the poem aloud (which works whether you’re doing class in-person or in a live video format).

Discuss the Poem (10-15 minutes)

• Ask kids, “What do you think the poem is about? (someone from the past burying a time capsule to be dug up by kids in the future)
• Point out that the poem is meant to look like a letter that was inside the time capsule. The poem also rhymes. Ask, “What are some words that rhyme in this poem?” (behind and find, then and when, see and me, & so and know)

Pair with the Fiction Story, "The Time Capsule" (30 minutes)

•  This poem makes a perfect pair with the fiction piece “The Time Capsule” on page 24 of the magazine.
• After reading both, ask, “What do Sydney’s class and the person who wrote this letter have in common?” (They’re both contributing to a time capsule for kids in the future.)
• Ask, “Are there any similarities between what Sydney’s class puts in their time capsule and something in the poem’s time capsule?” (Sydney’s class adds a photo album. There’s a photo of a car in the poem’s time capsule.)

ELA Focus: Time Capsule Activities (20 minutes each)

We created two time-capsule-themed skills pages for you that go with both the fiction and the poem.

• My Time Capsule: Use the “My Time Capsule” printable to help children make personal connections to what they’ve read by filling their own time capsules.
• Time Capsule Letter: In this Mad Libs style skills page, kids practice parts of speech by filling in a time capsule letter that has a lot of blanks. They will probably get pretty silly with it—and that’s the idea!

1. Film a Poetry Performance: Have students use a program like Flipgrid to film themselves reading the poem to share with you or the whole class.

2. Share Student Work: During a virtual class session, call on volunteers to present their time capsules to the class. They can also share their writing on a learning management system, such as Seesaw, to see what their classmates are doing and feel connected.