
A Real Superhero
Jack was a super imaginative little kid. He was constantly drawing—mostly superheroes. He made superhero costumes out of paper scraps. When anyone asked my then four year old son what he wanted to be when he grew up, Jack’s response was always the same, “Superhero.”
On career day, Jack’s preschool teacher had each child create a life-sized drawing of themselves dressed in their adult work clothes. Jack wanted to draw himself as a superhero, but a classmate told him, “Superhero isn’t a real job and Batman and Spiderman aren’t real people. If you want to be a superhero when you grow up, you have to be a policeman, fireman, or soldier.” Jack reluctantly drew himself as a fireman—in a superhero mask.
When I picked up Jack from school, he talked about the art project. He was mad there were only three job choices for “real-life” superhero and actual superhero wasn’t one of them. I told him there are millions of jobs to choose from and when you’re good at your job, everyone thinks you’re a superhero. “You could be a teacher, a doctor, a scientist, a garbage man, a computer programmer, a comic book artist…” He stopped me, “Wait, comic book artist is an actual job?”
From that day on, Jack created his own superhero comics. He drew the pictures and told me the words he wanted written on the pages.
He brought his comic books to school for Show and Tell. The school day ended like a Comic-Con convention. Four year olds burst through the exit door wearing paper superhero costumes and carrying comic books they had designed. Jack got in the car and grinned, “They liked my comic books. They want to be superheroes, too.” Jack was the superhero of promoting superheroes.
I thought of this story because I recently called a friend, but she didn’t have time to talk. Her seven year old son was getting ready for career day at school and they couldn’t find his Captain America costume.:)
This mask craft was inspired by Jack’s love of inventing superheroes and their costumes. I decided to start with a simple “m” shape for the mask. I thought it would be fun for kids to think of a character (noun) and an adjective that would tell something about the character, then create a mask for the character. Click on MAKE A MASK to get the template and instructions for this craftivity.