Big Questions and Superhero Play

What happens when a superhero dies?

Just how powerful is a superhero?

Superhero play has taken over our classroom.  Every morning many children want capes and masks.  Immediately they are transformed into Batman, Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  They all seem to have some familiarity with these characters, which makes it easy for them to connect with each other during this type of play.

Can a superhero push a grown up without even touching her?

Offering a teacher some popcorn while she is in jail.  Is she a good guy or a bad guy?

Can superheroes fly?

These three-year old children are just emerging from parallel play, and they are newly aware that peers have ideas and feel emotions which might be different from their own.  I wonder why one of the first things that happens when more socially engaged play appears is that children begin dividing people into categories:  are you a good guy or a bad guy?


When Chris was in our classroom, she willingly took on the role of Bad Guy.  The children loved it when she said, "Oh!  Your power is pushing me into a corner!"  They seemed to feel great satisfaction over their ability to control an adult.























However, the children are unable to tell me what makes someone good or bad.  Is it the clothes they wear?  A mean looking face?  Can someone be both a little bit good and a little bit bad?  Even the four-year olds who visited our classroom couldn't tell me…and quickly changed the subject. Perhaps these older children are just becoming aware that some things don't have a simple answer.

What does it feel like to take on another role?

This child wrote, "You are in jail and you will never never never never never get out."

"We are fighting without hurting."

Our studio teacher, Anna, supported the children in creating a Bad Guy.  They eagerly took tools she helped them create (hooks, spiderweb shooters, ropes) and attacked the Bad Guy.  They showed remarkable restraint when hitting the paper.  I've noticed when we play this game, no one wants to be the bad guy.  Even at their young age, these children seem to have a moral compass. A paper representation was the perfect solution, and carried over from the studio to our classroom.

 Were the children connecting with Anna as well as with each other?

In the classroom, the children wrote a story about superheroes and bad guys.

Yesterday two Batmans and Flash and Iron Man were walking down the street and they saw a bad man.  He saw the Batmen and Flash and Iron Man and he tried to gobble them up!  They knew he was a bad man because he looked mean.  He was wearing black pants and black shoes.  The bad man hit all of the superheroes with his fist.  Then the Batmen threw their battle wings on the bad guy.  The bad guy hit all of the heroes again.  That made the superheroes mad.  Then the superheroes threw their powers and then they hit him.  They took him to jail.  The bad guy escaped from jail the next day.  The bad guy ran away and ate all of the beads up.  The superheroes opened the bad guy's mouth and took all of the beads out.  They carried the bad guy above their heads back to jail.  He stayed in jail until Wednesday.

The children seem to be wrestling with a lot of questions.  How can I identify a bad guy?  How strong am I?  How powerful am I?  What does it feel like to be dead?  What does it mean to be bad…or good?

The Meadow Room - PRETEND PLAY

Parent: "What did you do today?"

Child: "Just played."

But here is what really happened: 

(because pretend play exercises three core elements of executive function, which is seen as a strong indicator of academic success)  

executive function allows us to: 
Make plans
Keep track of time and finish work on time
Keep track of more than one thing at once
Meaningfully include past knowledge in discussions
Evaluate ideas and reflect on our work
Change our minds and make mid-course corrections while thinking, reading, and writing
Ask for help or seek more information when we need it
Engage in group dynamics
Wait to speak until we're called on

They strengthened their working memory required to be in a role and interact with other children in other roles.  

Working memory is what enables us to keep several pieces of information active while we try to do something with them, like solve a problem or carry out a task.

They called on their inhibitory control - to resist acting out of character.  

Inhibitory control is the ability to inhibit or regulate strong or automatic responses.  It involves the ability to focus on relevant stimuli and block out what is irrelevant, like background noise.  It is also what lets us override strong but inappropriate behavioral responses.  An example is the child's game of Simon Says.  Simon Says is in fact a way to strengthen inhibitory control. 












and they exercised their Cognitive flexibility to adjust to the endless twists and turns of the developing plot -"now pretend we're on a trip and we have to bring supplies"

Cognitive flexibility is the capacity to shift or switch one’s thinking and attention between different tasks in response to a change in rules or demands.  It has also been described more broadly as the ability to adjust one’s thinking from old situations to new situations.

Embedded in their pretend play is oodles of social/relationship work.  

On top of all of this, we ask the children to go to the studio to make props for their play where they get lots of fine motor work, 

information about materials, 

                                                                                                                 tacit knowledge

 

and the laws of physical nature. 

But before they can even go ......... they have to write a note (literacy), 

          and after they get there they first have to make a plan, which requires the prefrontal cortex of the brain  

Then they often have to collaborate with other children and support each other.

So that's what they mean, but can't tell you, when they say they "just played"

No wonder they are tired when you pick them up.

Vygotsky (a pioneering psychologist whose work has become the foundation of much research and theory in developmental and child psychology) believes that: engaging in social pretend play is critical for developing executive function skills in very young children.