Children As Superheroes
What does a superhero look like to you? Do you have invisible powers or a cape that helps you fly? Superheroes look different to everyone. They could be a mom or dad taking care of their baby or a doctor giving medicine to someone who is sick. In the Autumn Room “superhero” play takes on many faces.
Since December, when the children began turning silk scarves into capes, I have been frequently asked, “Teacher, can you put this cape on me? Someone needs saving!” To enrich the growing superhero play, we decided to add some new items to the classroom: walkie talkies, a keyboard, and a phone. A “phone book” was also added with numbers children could use to phone the heroes. They could call a doctor (from across the classroom) to come quickly to deliver a baby or call a police officer to save someone who needed help. They would immediately get their team of superheroes together and go on their mission!
Another way the children represent their superhero play is through their story journals. They draw pictures and narrate stories about how someone gets trapped or hurt and a superhero comes to rescue them. Sometimes in these stories when they are trapped or hurt, they will rescue themselves. They will bust out of an ice cube or take lightning from the sky and use it to save themselves. In other stories there are birds that take them away, and then a hero comes and saves them. These stories come to life when acted out by their peers. The children can act out whichever character they want - another way they achieve a feeling of power. The superhero story genre has taken many forms in the children’s journals and has become popular, inspiring others to create similar stories.
When the children are dressed up in their superhero gear or dictating a superhero story, I ask them what their mission is. What is their plan? Who are they saving and what are they saving them from? It is the same answer from each child: I am here to help someone who needs it. My power is myself.
Even before children are out of diapers, they have the innate desire to help others. When they help someone, it isn’t because they know they will get something in return. They do it because it feels good – both to them and to the person they help.
There are many examples of how children show their desire to be heroes and helpers in real life, too. One of our grandmas in memory care, Grandma Julie, loves her stuffed puppy. Every week when we visit her, she talks about and is holding her puppy. There was one day she didn’t have it and was looking all over for it. She kept asking us if we knew where her puppy was. The children replied, “I don’t know Grandma Julie, but we can help you look for it!” We looked around the room and couldn’t find it. Julie went back to her apartment that day looking sad. The next time we saw Julie, she had her stuffed puppy! The children were so excited to see her with her puppy and exclaimed, “Julie, you found your puppy!” Then when we were saying goodbye, she left it at the table. Many of the preschoolers ran to the table where the puppy was, picked it up to give it back to Julie, saying, “Grandma Julie, you left your puppy on the table! We didn’t want you to lose him again.” Julie’s eyes lit up with delight. She told the children they were just the sweetest. They loved being the heroes for Grandma Julie that day.
In our classroom and outside, we see a variety of living things daily. Indoors, the children often stumble upon a box elder bug or an ant that came in from the playground with us. When this happens, the children get down on their hands and knees. They grab a magnifying glass and look very closely at the tiny creature. Then they announce, “There is an ant in the classroom, teacher. Let’s get it back outside where it lives!” They all work together slowly to put the ant in their hands and place it carefully outside the door. There is usually no mention of squashing it, but if it accidentally does happen, a child will announce, “Next time we must keep it alive. It’s a living thing.” They also feel this way about the trees and plants that they encounter each day. With spring on its way, we are all on the lookout for tiny buds on trees and in the ground and of course, the children make sure they don’t get squashed or pulled off the tree.
Whether they are dressing up to be pretend superheroes or offering to help people or creatures in their everyday life, children are building their sense of themselves as powerful and confident. When they set a mission for themselves and achieve it, they all feel victorious!
