Superhero Theme

[MrL]

Originally Posted by SouperTeach

Thank you all for the great information. I am really excited about it. I will have to find out who sells comics around here; I live in a small town so I may have to drive, but I will definitely look for a store. I am hoping to get some comics for free off of freecycle.org.

Which city in Texas?

[karalee7]

Hi!
I just discovered this site and your posts - I, too, am doing a superheroes theme for my 3rd grade classroom this year. I found really neat bulletin board sets at Northstar Teacher Resources' website - I bought a set for my classroom entryway and put each of my students' names on a star I attached to each 'hero.' They also have desk nameplates and other nametags, etc with the superheroes and also math and parts of speech posters that feature the same superheroes. They are so colorful and cute - not too "primary" like the Carson Dellosa "superkids" set. (That one is really cute, too, but I think too primary for 3rd graders.)

Anyway, I can't post the website address yet because I just joined, but if you google search 'North Star Teacher Resources" you will find it. I ordered my stuff a few weeks ago and received my order in 2 days!

Good luck and have a great year with your class! I liked the idea posted earlier here about "Mr. L's Super Students" - I think I will use that one for my entry display! Thanks!

[silverspoon65]

You can make up all your class jobs to have superhero names. Superlineleaderman or something. haha.

[SouperTeach]

Originally Posted by MrL

Which city in Texas?

Sorry, I haven't checked this thread lately. I live in Pittsburg. It is about an hour from Longview, Tyler, and Texarkana, so I could probably make a special trip to one of those cities.

Thanks for all of the help once again.

[Mister Teacher]

During my time at SMU getting my education certificate, one of the projects I did was device a superhero thematic unit. That sort of thing is totally fun, I hope you and your kids really enjoy putting it into play.

Some suggestions for writing topics: Make up and describe your own superhero; what is your origin story (ie, struck by lightning, bit by a radioactive arachnid, hit in the head by a rock)? What is your secret headquarters like? Who is your archnemesis?

Math activities: Fractions with superteams. If 4 of the X-Men get called away to fight the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, what fraction of the team does that represent?
If Iron Man lives 1,876 miles away from the Hulk, how far away is that rounded to the nearest ten?

Good luck, and Excelsior!!

[lindam]

The Texas PTA Membership theme this year is Super Hero... I loved all the ideas ya'll gave.

Thanks!

Can't believe you are from Pittsburg. I'm in Longview.

[3Sons]

Originally Posted by MrL

Also, I keep some comics in my room. They helped me teach physics.

The 60's DC guys were ALWAYS trying to teach the kids science. You'd be surprised how much physics and chemistry Flash and Green Lantern have snuck in.

I always have one parent who claims that reading comics is junk. I always show them an issue of Fantastic Four, and state that any kid that can read and comprehend sentences like "See you not the scope of my illimitable dominion?" is on the right track. Thank you, Galactus!

There is an absolutely terrific book out, The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios, which is essentially an introductory physics text but with all examples taken from superheroes and answering questions about their powers. It's quite engaging, and even if a kid didn't understand the math (it's algebra, so high schoolers and even jr. high would get it -- elementary, maybe less so) they would get a lot out of it.

The book also mentions some of the reasons the 60's writers were always trying to teach: the comics authority was a self-regulatory body created to avoid governmental oversight of content. To help this along, they noted the educational impact of the comics (along with squeaky-clean morality). Also. . . comics writers got paid by the word. . .

There is a video of Kakalios explaining the Spiderman comic "The Death of Gwen Stacy" which draws heavily on the book. It's pretty representative of the way the book reads.