Superhero Training: Elementary School Kids

I broke my superhero trainings into two groups: the preschoolers and the school-aged crowd. I wrote about my preschool one here. These are the modifications I made for the older group.

Craft Stations

Things I kept the same: 

Superhero capes

Superhero masks

Things I did differently:

1 - Superhero Names

I printed out several superhero name generators of the kind that match your initials to new fun superhero words and had the kids write their new super name on a nametag. Warning: some of these had words that weren't really appropriate for kids - Erotic, for example, or even Kick-ass. Rather than face the maelstrom over those words, I just substituted others. Worked out fine. Thank god for whiteout.

2 - Create a Sidekick

I wanted a craft that had side-kick in it, but I didn't want just a paper bag puppet (we had been doing those all week at our passive program craft station), so instead I found a template for moveable superheros and used those instead. You need brads and a whole punch, but they came out pretty cool.

3 - Shields

Out came my trusty Slick Stix for the superhero shields. I had ended up with lots of colored plates that failed to be masks for our Act Out! program (more on that soon) and we colored them and stapled a strip of paper to the back so they could hold the shield on their arm.

Training Course

The Laser Maze (longer and more complex this time)

Can you navigate the maze without getting caught in the tape?

The Tunnel (longer and made out of boxes so it was also a tighter fit)

Do you have the courage to crawl all the way through the tunnel?

Bowling for Villains

Knock down those Disney villains!

Might Muscles

Can you lift a bean bag over your head?

Animal Rescue (longer path with more bends in it)

Walk the path and bring the animals to safety. Be careful not to touch the lava!

Leaping Over Buildings (I used bigger boxes so the buildings were higher)

Can you leap over each group of buildings in a single bound?

The Wall (I put it higher up to match the height of our kids for this program, but the build-it-back-up portion was still part of it)

Test of strength: knock down the wall. Test of Kindness: build it back up. 

Pin-the-on-the

A former co-worker of mine at another library and I always did station-based programs around specific themes and every other time, we included a game where you had to pin the nose on the gnome or the teeth on the vampire or the tail on the bunny or... you get the picture. (For the record, I ran across my very favorite one of all time - created by the inimitable Sarah here). So when we were planning we would always add "Oh, and a pin-the-on-the." And that's what I've called them ever since. 

Here's the one I bought at the party store for the superhero party:

All in all, a great party and the kids who came out really enjoyed it. One was flying around the room saying "I'm SUPER BOY!" and really, what more can you ask for. (No, not literally flying. But his cape was fluttering behind him, so it was a good imitation).