BE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO

BE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO

Learning Description

In this lesson, students will first think about a personal fear, worry, or challenge. After identifying this, they will design their own unique superhero—one that has the strength and confidence to overcome that fear, worry, or challenge. The goal of the lesson is to help students look within themselves and discover the amazing “superpowers” that everyone already has.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 4
CONTENT FOCUS: VISUAL ARTS & HEALTH
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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can create a self-portrait that represents myself as a superhero.
  • I can use the Elements of Art to create a unique character and background.
  • I can create a superhero that can help me overcome a fear, worry, or challenge.

Essential Questions

  • How can I create a superhero that can help me overcome a fear, worry, or challenge?
  • How can the Elements of Art help me create a unique character and background?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

HE4.1 Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.

HE4.1.c Describe basic health concepts of mental and emotional well-being.

Arts Standards

VA4.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and symbols to communicate meaning.

VA4.CR.3 Understand and apply media, techniques, processes, and concepts of two-dimensional art.

VA4.PR.1 Plan and participate in appropriate exhibition(s) of works of art to develop identity of self as artist.

VA4.CR.5 Demonstrate an understanding of the safe and appropriate use of materials, tools, and equipment for a variety of artistic processes.

VA4.RE.1 Use a variety of approaches for art criticism and to critique personal works of art and the artwork of others to enhance visual literacy.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Standard 2: “Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors” (NHES, 2007).

I-4.2.1 Analyze ways that protective factors promote health and safety (e.g., positive outlook, healthy self-concept, good relationships with parents).

Standard 6: “Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health” (NHES, 2007).

M-4.6.1 Develop a plan to reduce and manage stress.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Benchmark VA.CR I can combine several elements of art to express ideas.

Indicator VA.CR NM.1.2 I can combine several elements of art to construct 2D or 3D artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

Benchmark VA.CR NM.2 I can use some materials, techniques, and tools to create artwork.

Indicator VA.CR NM.2.1 I can use two-dimensional art materials to explore ways to make art.

Anchor Standard 4: I can organize work for presentation and documentation to reflect specific content, ideas, skills, and or media.

Benchmark VA.P NL.4 I can show and describe the idea of my artwork.

Indicator VA.P NL.4.2 I can describe my artwork.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Challenge - Something that tests your ability, strength, or determination
  • Strength - Something someone is good at or a positive quality someone possesses that helps them in life

Arts Vocabulary

  • Space - The distance or area between, around, above or within things. Positive space refers to the subject or areas of interest in an artwork, while negative space is the area around the subject of an artwork. It can be a description for both two and three-dimensional portrayals.
  • Foreground - The area of the artwork that appears closest and is largest
  • Middle ground - The area of the artwork that appears in the middle of the picture plane between the background and middle ground
  • Background - The area of the artwork that appears furthest away and is smallest
  • Color - An element of art with three properties: 1) Hue: the name of the color, e.g. red, yellow, etc.; 2) Intensity: the purity and strength of the color (brightness or dullness); 3) Value: the lightness or darkness of the color (shades and tints)

Materials

  • 12x18 paper
  • Pencils
  • Sharpies
  • Markers
  • Collage papers
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Images of people, buildings, shape tracers, examples of superhero designs

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

  • Brainstorm examples of fears or challenges and how someone might overcome those fears or challenges.
    • Discuss how creating art helps in processing thoughts and feelings. It can help someone visualize something that they want to be reality.
  • Provide examples of a superhero that could be created to overcome a challenge and the environment they might be placed in.
    • For example, if it is a fear of heights, the superhero might be able to fly. The art might showcase the superhero flying above a city or landscape.
    • Tell students that the superhero inside comes out when we feel intimidated or afraid and helps to remind us that we can overcome challenges.

Work Session

  • Have students brainstorm things that they might want to overcome–fears, worries, challenges, etc.
  • After they have decided on one, provide time for them to brainstorm what their superhero might look like and what their superpower might be.
    • Discuss how color can represent characteristics; for example, soft colors might represent kindness and bright colors might represent boldness.
    • Have students brainstorm ideas for their superhero and choose one final design.
  • Next, discuss how to portray space using a background, middle ground, and foreground.
  • Students will need to decide on and create a background environment for their specific superhero.
    • Students can draw the background, trace with a Sharpie, and color with markers. Students can also use collage papers to create shapes for the background.
    • Remind students that the environment should connect to the challenge the superhero is overcoming.
  • Once the background is complete students will then begin the process of drawing their unique superhero character with pencil then tracing with a sharpie.
    • Be sure students understand that the superhero is a self-portrait of them as the superhero.
    • The students will then add color with markers and cut out to glue down the character onto their background.
    • Speech bubbles can be added to aid in the concept the students are trying to convey.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Engage the students in a gallery walk. Students will walk around the classroom and view the artworks. Students will see if they can identify clearly what challenge each superhero is overcoming.
  • Facilitate a discussion about how we each have strengths inside us that can help us overcome our challenges.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • The teacher will assess whether:
    • Students are using color and space to create their artwork.
    • Students clearly created a superhero that represents the idea or topic.
    • Students have used craftsmanship in their artwork.

Summative

 

Differentiation

Accelerated: 

  • Students can turn their idea into a comic strip or create multiple scenes.

 

Remedial:

  • Students can use drawing aids like images and shape tracers as well as smaller sized paper.

 

Credits

U.S. Department of Education- STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning

Ideas contributed by: SAIL Grant Teacher Leaders–Chad Itnyre, Kristen Alvarez, Leah Patel, Lucerito Gonzalez, Tamu Clayton, Sandra Cash, Erin Smullen

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Revised and copyright:  August 2025 @ ArtsNOW

 

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