This special day in September came during difficult times marked by restrictions of all sorts in the classrooms around the world. With so many negative messages that I convey throughout each school day, from Don’t touch! to Don’t share! and Don’t stand too close!, it was clear that I needed to do something fun for my students (and myself!), because I refuse to have the new norm dictate the mood. I believe that it is in my power to bring joy back into my classroom despite all the restrictions. With that in mind, I went full speed for another room transformation for Rock Your School Day, 2021!
Superheroes Save The World!
I am struggling to get my students to work and think fast, so it seemed very appropriate to tie my room transformation to the idea of speed, precision, and endurance, and what better topic to pick than superheroes? I teach K-3rd grade and, in every room transformation, I try to maintain focus on my students’ IEP goals. The process of creating materials to reach so many different goals, both for ELA and Math (!), requires quite some effort. However, I began planning early, and everything went smoothly once I decided what I wanted to do. I will show you below an outline of the activities I created for each grade level.
I began by thinking about the decor. I went with black individual student dividers on which I drew city skylines. I intended to add windows, but I ran out of time and ink, so the city was in the dark this year. It’ll be easy to add to the decor next year, so that’s when the city will get its power back. Ha! Nonetheless, the kids didn’t even notice that there were no windows… I used Posca paint markers to draw the designs: green and yellow for the student dividers, and thick white, for the walls. The windows on the walls were easy: sticky notes did the trick in no time! If next year I decide to turn this into a glow in the dark activity, I will most likely use some neon paint for the windows.
To add some visual interest, I hung red, yellow, blue, and black lanterns from the ceiling. Each lantern had a quote attached to it. I went with messages of determination, perseverance, speed, and growth mindset!
To create excitement, an invitation was given to each student the day before and a letter explaining the activity went home to the parents.
I created each activity with the idea of speed in mind. I wanted my students to practice working fast, since so many of the activities I do with them are timed: reading fluency, Dibels, math facts fluency, and so on. I decided I would narrow the superhero theme even more, and go with the Avengers! When my son dug out his costumes and masks and started battling the big purple grape, aka Thanos, I was sold! I saw the enthusiasm in his eyes and I knew I could carry that into my classroom and fire up my students too! The plot was easy: Thanos had gained 5 out of the 6 infinity stones and was about the acquire the last stone that would allow him to take control over the world. The Avengers were calling all superheroes to help save the world! Each student received a gauntlet much like the one Thanos had. If they were able to work fast and complete their tasks with accuracy, they would be able to take a stone away from Thanos and put it on their own gauntlet. The gauntlets were made by printing a picture I found online and mounted on toilet paper rolls slit in half. I laminated the gauntlets so I can attach velcro dots in the places were the stones would go. For each correct answer/passage/task or group of answers/tasks, the students would get a stone and I would have to take one away from my own gauntlet. They had a blast racing against timers and trying to defeat me!
To create the atmosphere, I projected a picture of the Avengers on my screen and played the soundtrack of the End Game as the students came in. You can find a lot of pieces on YouTube! It is quite interesting how a picture and some background music can fire up even the littlest of our students!
My first group was second grade for Social Skills. The story we were working on was about greeting people. I decided not to alter the story; instead, I tied the gauntlet to it and, for each correct answer, the students would get a stone. I only had 20 minutes for this block, so we had to be fast. It went great and my gauntlets were highly appreciated.
Next, I had my kindergarteners. One of them was working on pre-requisite skills, like identifying basic colors and shapes, so I created an adapted book, with superheroes in each color to be matched. The others are working on learning their numbers and letters. For them, I created an uppercase – lowercase matching game with a letter visual displayed in front of them for extra support.
In Math, we quickly reviewed the numbers 1-5, using number cards and swatters. I displayed the number cards on the floor, gave each one of my superheroes a swatter, and began calling numbers. Their job was to swat a number as fast as possible as I called it. {There are many variations of the game: it can be played as a memory game, you could allow the students to keep the cards they identify, you could flip them until all cards are gone, etc.} Also, I love those swatters because they extend and allow for social distancing! I had purchased a set last year, but due to Covid restrictions I needed more, so I added them to my wish list. Sure enough, a super special donor sent them to me right in time! If you want to add a little extra oomph to them, just attach a picture of a superhero and your kindergarteners will be thrilled!
As you read this post, please keep in mind that I only have my groups for 30 minutes at a time, so the activities have to be fast paced! After the quick number review, we moved back to the desks and grabbed Chromebooks. I created a slide with simple counting-to-5 activities. One of my goals this fall is to incorporate technology in my lessons with all grade levels. I want my students to know how to login and find an assignment in Google Classroom so that when we have to go remote or quarantine suddenly, we won’t be caught with our pants down like last year. The hardest part for my students though is to login, as out district is a bit antiquated and does not provide the Clever badge option, so you can imagine how long it takes for a kindergartener to type their username and password in! However, keeping our eyes on the main goal, we will continue to practice working fast and increasing our speed, and the superhero activity was a perfect fit!… along with counting superheroes!
The first graders were the hardest hit in March, when we went remote, and I am still trying to recoup all the skills that were lost or not acquired during the months of remote learning and summer break. Going by their IEP goals, we practiced sight words for reading, with a sight words Bingo game, and counting up to 30 in math. The activities were similar to the ones I described for my K group.
I am guesting in a couple of students to work on short vowel sounds and decoding skills. They are trying to score big on those pesky nonsense word fluency tasks in Dibels, so superhero speed was a perfect match for them! I had them use timers set to 1 minute and try to read as many nonsense words as possible. I gave them a certain number of cards based on their previous Dibels scores, and kept adding a few words at a time, to try to increase their fluency and speed. For each round in which they could read all the words correctly before the minute was up, they would get a stone on their gauntlet. Let me tell you: those boys tried soooo hard to get all their stones, it made my day! The proud look on their faces at the end was priceless! One of them, who is just getting to know me, said “I really like this teacher!” And that is why I do what I do!
Last, but not least, my third graders! This group is, by far, the most energetic and enthusiastic out of all my groups. They were the reason I chose to go with the Avengers! I knew I could get right to their heart with this theme! They love a good challenge, so I made it fun! Before they walked in, I placed an envelope on their desk. They had to read it in order to discover their superhero identity and figure out where their outfits were. I placed envelopes with capes and masks in different places around the room and sent them on a quick scavenger hunt. This part only took five minutes, as they moved extremely fast, being so eager to find the clues!
Let me give you some perspective on what I do with this group: while in reading I have some wiggle room and can do my own thing for a day or two based on the students’ IEP goals, in math, I follow the lessons planned by their gen ed teacher. I knew I couldn’t deviate at all with my math activity, so I asked her a week in advance to let me know the exact lesson they will be doing that morning, and I recreated their workbook page in a superhero way! It turned out they were working on subtracting mentally, so I didn’t even have to sell it too hard to them: of course all superheroes have mental powers! During that activity, they gained three stars, and they were left on a cliffhanger for the other three! They had to return to their classroom and wait another hour until they could come back to see me for reading and try to get the other three stones. You can only imagine how much anticipation that built! When they got back for reading, they raced against time to read a Superhero passage (I didn’t create this one! It was free on TPT, so I took advantage!). In addition, they had to read their individual Fry sight word lists, also timed! {As a side note, if you are facing curriculum constraints, you can just go with a superhero punch card: work on your regular lesson of the day and, for every correct response, give your students a point on their card to redeem at the end of the day for…whatever you choose!}
To see the happiness in their eyes when they finally defeated Thanos was an amazing sight! One of the boys had planned all morning to gather all the infinity stones, then snap his fingers just like Thanos, and bring Mrs. Sylvander back. I played right into his game, and when he snapped his fingers, I plopped onto the floor dramatically, with feet up and all, and pretended I was turning into dust, then I came back to life as their teacher and congratulated them for a job well done. I believe our students don’t think of us as human beings capable of being silly and fun, so to see me like that, was quite a treat for them! But guess what a little bit of silliness once in a while does? It builds relationships! And more than anything, we need relationships before content!
In the end, Thanos was defeated and my superheroes saved the world!
And while I believe it takes more than a superhero effort to save the real world right now, I also believe that I can save my school days from countless hours of monotony dictated by so many “don’ts” this year! I want to be a super teacher for my students! I want to continue to create magical moments in my classroom despite the restrictions that we face around every corner and at every moment of our school day!
So I encourage you to go out there and be a superhero for your students too! It will pay off, I promise!
