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Superhero Week

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It was my intention to continue with our Life At Sea unit this week, and I will next week for sure, but I was a little distracted and short on planning time.  I have four kiddos.  Two birthdays are in July and August.  The other two have birthdays in November and January.  Last year I had four large parties at my house to celebrate birthdays, plus an adoption party. I was completely burned out on parties.  When it came time to plan the birthday party for Princess and Bulldozer this summer, I had absolutely no energy.  Of course Dinomite made the process even more fun by whining and complaining about it all.  All of this inspired an idea.  What if I just throw one big birthday bash for all four of them?  It's one party.  It's done.  We don't have to worry about people's holiday plans or the weather (snow etc.).  None of the kiddos will whine and cry because they didn't get presents.  Extended family lives at least an hour and fifteen minutes away.  Most live two hours away.  It would save them a lot of driving.  I decided to ask all of the grandparents about the idea before executing my plan, just because there was a cost involved.  That's four kiddos to buy for at once, not just one.  They were all for it.  Hooray!  Our party was Saturday.

Selecting a theme seemed to be the most difficult.  At first we were planning a Knights and Princesses party.  However, I couldn't find any of the materials I was looking for and didn't have money in my account in time enough to order things online.  Then we decided on a Mermaid Pirate Party.  That went downhill as Dinomite was not okay with mermaids and pirates playing together.  It just wasn't right.  Mermaids live in water. Pirates are on a ship or on land.  Finally Princess came up with the Superhero theme. She loves superheroes just as much as the boys.

I'm not a big fan of superheroes when it comes to the kiddos. They've watched Superhero Squad and LOVED it, but I ended up banning it because they couldn't understand that they needed to "pretend" to do what superheroes do, not really do it.  Still, no matter how hard I try to limit their exposure, they dive into them even more.  And in all honesty, I love superheroes. I've watched all the movies.  My husband still even has comic book collections he reads.  So I gave in to the theme for the party.

Needless to say my brain has been in party planning mode, not in learning time mode.  The weather was completely unpredictable this weekend, so I basically ended up preparing activities and the house for two parties, one indoors and one outdoors.  There would be twelve kiddos.  Five of them are autistic.  Others have special needs as well. And then there were some that were completely typical. Ages ranged from 6 months to 10.

The kiddos wanted costumes.  I agreed only with the term that they would use them for Halloween as well.  Thankfully they were thrilled with this idea!  I've gotta say, they looked super cute.

For party guests we made sure to have capes and masks available.
The girls had a choice of pink or purple. The boys wore blue. I was super excited to find a bib cape for my nephew who is 6 months old.
For drinks I offered energy drinks, including smart water. After all super heroes need energy!
For food I decided to go with a spread of super foods, along with a few cute little additions.  We had spinach, chicken, almond and strawberry salad, Hulk's grape weights, Greek yogurt, guacamole with chips, black bean, spinach, & feta cheese quesadillas, strawberries, blueberries, olives, broccoli, carrots, more grapes, Thor's cheese hammers, granola bars, hummus & crackers.
There was cake too, actually four of them.  Dinomite wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Bulldozer wanted a brownie chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake.  Princess wanted a pink cake with pink frosting. Sunshine ended up with a carrot pineapple cake covered in cream cheese frosting and coconut.

The food was a huge success and absolutely delicious. I had originally wanted to make signs for all the dishes explaining what super power they would give you but my printer ran out of ink.  Oh well.

For most of the week, it looked like rain for the day of the party.  So I put on my creative cap and came up with a few indoor activities that would keep the kiddos entertained.  I decided to put different ones all over the house, including the upstairs so it wouldn't become too chaotic.

I created a Thor sensory bin for the little ones. I regret not having Loki, but oh well.  Sunshine loved the bin. So did Bulldozer.  I just used cotton balls, stiff felt lightning bots, & a mini figure Thor.

Thor Sensory Bin
Sensorial Activity
For the older girls that were coming, I set up a superhero bracelet making station.  I loved the idea when I saw it at Activity Mom.  She also has ideas for princess themed bracelets.  The picture I printed out as an example of what to do, comes straight from her site.

Superhero Bracelets
Practical Life Activity
In the boys room, I brought out all of our blocks and mini superhero figures.  The boys built cities to their hearts content.  What bad guys knocked down, superheroes saved.

Superhero City
(Excuse our worn out train table.  A while back, Bulldozer decided to pour water all over it to see what it would do.  Lol.)
I decided to put another superhero sensory bin together, this one with a Spiderman theme.  I was excited I had a bad guy to match too.  It includes cooked thin spaghetti, plastic spiderwebs & spiders, and figures.  Bulldozer LOVES this bin!

Spiderman Sensory Bin
Sensorial Activity
In Sunshine's room I set up a city/skyscraper for the kiddos to build and knock down like the Hulk. I even bought a pair of green gloves they could use. Lol.  A big thanks goes out to grandparents for putting the work into this activity. I had no place to store the boxes let alone work on them at home.

Hulk's Skyscraper City
In the end, the party ended up being outside.  It rained all day, the day before, and early in the morning, but by afternoon, everything was dry and perfect for a party.  That is, except our lawn, which hadn't been mowed because of the rain.  Oh well.  We brought some activities outside and then went with my outdoor planning ideas.

To practice our Spiderman techniques we used white crepe paper to wrap up the bad guys and other superheroes who wanted to be wrapped. Lol.
Princess did a great job wrapping up her superhero friend.

For target practice we used hula hoops and Frisbees.  Grandparents helped again with the activity, holding the hoops for those who wanted to participate.
Then there was time to free play.  Some superheroes practiced their balance and flying skills.
In the picture above is Princess Superhero.  She and Dinomite planned out her attire the day before while at bowling.  I LOVE the whole ensemble-cowboy boots, princess dress, crown, silver mask, and pink cape!  So cute!

Other superheroes practiced flying down our ramp with their car!
After everyone had warmed up, practiced their skills, and had their super food, we brought out the silly string to use on our bad guy targets all across the side fence.  I had printed out a bad guy for each kiddo.  The kiddos had a BLAST with the silly string. Had I known the container would only last for such a short while, I probably would have purchased more. (They were only $1 at the $1 store.)
For those who couldn't press the button to make the silly string come out, grandparents helped!
Bulldozer loved being helped by his Grandpa!

The party went extremely well for the kiddos, despite how chaotic it felt to me.  I will continue with the one party a year, but definitely have to do some tweaking, especially in the area of opening gifts.  It was crazy.  Think Christmas morning chaos.

The party was Sunday, and Monday learning time was supposed to be up and ready to go.  Lol.  Yeah right.  So I started working on it, but then decided since the kiddos had still not calmed down from the big day, and I had put all of this work into researching superhero ideas, I was just going to do that instead.  I used all of the indoor activities I had planned, except for the building crashing, along with the activities below.  The kids are loving them!  Here's what I added.

Language:
Hero Play Dough Mat
The kiddos will make the letters using  black play dough.

Source: This activity is part of a free printable I found at 123 Homeschool 4 Me.

Superhero Nomenclature Cards
The kiddos will match up word and picture cards.

Source:  This activity is part of a free printable pack at Over the Big Moon.

Phonogram Sorting: Long E
Dinomite did AWESOME with the Long A Phonograms from last week.  This week the kiddos will match up Long E phonograms with words where they are used.

Source: I created this long vowel phonogram resources. These are Subscriber's Only Freebies. Be sure to follow the directions at the end of this post to obtain your free copies.

Phonogram Writing:  Long E
The kiddos will write the words matching the pictures to the sides. There are control cards for each phonogram page.

Source: I created this printable. The Phonogram Writing Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, be sure to follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Math:
Superhero Patterns
The kiddos will complete the patterns using the picture cards available. There is an easy level set of patterns and a hard level of patterns in the printable pack.

Source: This activity is part of a free printable pack at 123 Homeschool 4 Me
.
Superheros On the Hour
The kiddos will practice reading clocks on the hour and writing the time.  They will also make their own clock matching those on the page.

Source: This activity is part of a free printable pack at 123 Homeschool 4 Me.

Iron Man Addition
Source: This activity is part of a free printable pack at 123 Homeschool 4 Me.

Science:
Painting Cloud Formations
I saw this idea The Pinay Homeschooler, and just loved it.  I looked at her printable cards and couldn't find a Cumulonimbus cloud formation, which just happens to be Bulldozer's favorite type of cloud, so I ended up making my own set of clouds. However, between the two of us, you definitely have quite the collection of cloud formations, so don't hesitate to also take advantage of the free cards at The Pinay Homeschooler.
Source: I created this printable. The Cloud Formation Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, be sure to follow the directions at the bottom of this post. 

Art:
Works of Michelangelo
This month we're learning about the artist Michelangelo.  In all honesty, if there is an artist who seems to be a superhero, it's him.  Since a lot of his work consists of people in the nude, we decided to focus on two pieces in particular.  I create this printable so the kiddos could study the works and separate the different parts.  It also includes the picture.

I noticed when I printed out the first set of cards, I had forgotten the e on Pope.  This has been corrected in the printable LOL.  You can't really see the written in E I made on our printable.
Source: I created this printable. The Michelangelo Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, be sure to follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Music:  We're continuing with our composition for the month. It's going very well. We've also introduced the kiddos to Mozart this week.  Dinomite in particular seems to love the music.  He loves to conduct. I've been teaching him the basics of waving his hands around as we listen to the music. When the music is soft, our hand and arm movements are small. When the music is loud, or hand and arm movements are large. It's so fun to watch him enjoy the music.

Physical Education:  Dinomite has gymnastics and bowling this week. Bulldozer has bowling.  Princess has gymnastics and dance class.

Practical Life/Sensorial:
Superhero Puzzle
I found this at our local dollar store.  The kids are enjoying it so far!

Heroes and Villains Book
This is an adorable book about the heroes and villains in the Batman comic series.  My kiddos aren't as familiar with these guys so I figured it would be fun for them to get to know them, especially after Princess was Batgirl for her party.

Source: This book activity is part of a free printable at 1+1+1=1.

Cutting Practice with Superheroes
I've never used any of these cutting sheets, so I figured I'd give it a try. To my surprise, Dinomite kind of freaked out about them, in that they were different and he was unsure if he could do it.  I'll definitely be putting some more on the shelf to help him in weeks to come.

Source: This activity is part of a printable at Over the Big Moon.

Batman's Cave
The kiddos will make caves out of play dough for the bats.  They've also had fun making bat imprints etc.

Next week we will definitely be back to our Life At Sea Unit!  Planning is already under way. It was definitely fun prolonging our birthday party fun for just a few more days though.

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8 comments:

  1. Love your Spiderman sensory bin! I'll have to steal that idea to use cooked noodles as a base. Looks like it was an uber fun party! Found you via TGIF.

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  2. This could be a great party theme too--I love they all had capes! Pinning!

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  3. Love that they all had capes - how cute!! And that tower is fabulous!!

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  4. I love all of your sensory bins - so creative! I'm featuring this on The Sunday Showcase this weekend.

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  5. These are just brilliant! so many creative ideas!!

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  6. Oh my gosh, this had to be a week to go down in history!

    Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!

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  7. My boys would love this! Thanks for sharing at After School!

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  8. Where did you find the plastic spider webs?? I've looked everywhere!

    Thanks!

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