Superhero School Holiday Fun in Your Backyard!

Turn your tampoline into a Superhero HQ

During the school holidays the kids are likely to say those dreaded words at some point; "I'm bored!" 

Well never fear good citizens, Springfree to the rescue! Fighting evil, and boredom!

It’s no secret, kids love superheroes! Dressing up as a caped crusader and turning your trampoline into superhero headquarters will send your kids imaginations into over-drive; and will provide hours of fun! Using your powers for good, to save the family pet from the neighbour's evil cat, having secret superhero meetings in the hero's lair – there's just so much you can do with a superhero themed day of fun! 

Many child behaviour experts tell us that superhero play can promote confidence, patience, empowerment, helpfulness, a sense of right and wrong, even healthy food choices! So in the name of safe backyard fun, developing imaginations and encouraging our kids to eat their vegetables (like Superman does!), here are 5 fun ways to dress up your backyard (and each other) in true superhero style.

You’ll even find a selection of bright and fun superhero themed printables to dress up your trampoline and the kids throughout this article.

1. Create a City Skyline

Let’s get your backyard (and your trampoline) ready for a superhero hideaway!

When it comes to creating a superhero cave or lair, a Springfree Trampoline makes it easy! (If Santa hasn’t delivered your trampoline yet, you can always create a secret cave using boxes and/or outdoor furniture and cover using sheets and towels).

You will need:

• 5 - 10 x sheets of black cardboard
• Yellow cardboard or yellow paint/paint brushes
• Masking tape & glue stick
• Safety scissors

How to:

• Lay all the cardboard sheets out next to each other and tape together to desired length/height. This will create the large blank canvas to start.
• Once you’ve created your black canvas, trace your city skyline design onto the cardboard canvas and cut out your building silhouette.
• Using the yellow cardboard - cut out different size squares and rectangles to create windows for your buildings. Alternatively, you could paint these on!

If you're lucky enough to own the world's safest and world's first smart trampoline, it's easy to turn your Springfree Trampoline into a Superhero Cave! It already looks the part with its black, shiny mat and enclosure!

2. Cut & Colour Paper Printables

We’ve made it easy to set the Superhero scene: dress up your trampoline and yourselves by printing out and colouring in these printables:

• Superhero Badges & Signs (to stick on belts, capes, trampoline etc.)
• Superhero Sneaker Logos (thread through laces)
• Superhero Bunting (Wham, Zap, Boom, Kapow – to hang in the cave/trampoline)

SUPERHERO BADGES & SIGNS

You will need:

• Paint/Pencils/Crayons
• Paper/Cardboard (recyclable i.e cereal boxers, coasters, paper plates)
• Craft glue
• Masking tape
• Safety scissors

Prepare recyclable cardboard, cut into required shape (circles, diamonds, triangles). Print off, colour in and cut out the superhero badge printables, then stick onto the cardboard cut outs. Dress up your t-shirts, capes, hats etc by sticking the badges and sign printables using masking tape.

SUPERHERO SNEAKER LOGOS   

You will need:

• Paint/pencils/crayons
• Paper/cardboard (recyclable i.e cereal boxers, coasters, paper plates)
• Hole punch
• Safety scissors

Prepare recyclable cardboard, cut into required shape. Print off, colour in and cut out the superhero sneaker logo printables. Stick onto cardboard and cut out. Hole punch evenly to ensure they line up with shoe laces.

SUPERHERO BUNTING You will need:

• Paint/pencils/crayons
• Paper
• String or elastic
• Hole punch
• Bull clip
• Safety scissors

Print off, colour in and cut out the supplied superhero bunting printables. Using the hole-punch, create two holes on the flat edge (so the point of the triangle is down) and create two holes: one in the left corner and one in the right corner. Feed the tie through each triangle with string. Once you have created a row of bunting, gently fasten it to the top of your trampoline (superhero hideout) net banding using a bull clip.

3. Dress Up Material Printables

There’s no need to spend a fortune on superhero costumes with these handy printables using scraps of materials like cotton, satin, felt etc.

• Superhero masks & wrist bands
• Superhero cape

SUPERHERO MASKS & WRIST BANDS    You will need:

• Felt/craft paper/scrap materials
• Elastic
• Masking tape & craft glue
• Safety scissors
• Stubby holder makes a perfect wrist band

Print and cut-out the supplied superhero mask – use these as stencil template to cut out your material. For the superhero wrist band simply grab an old stubby holder and decorate with cut out and colour printables.

SUPERHERO CAPES   

You will need:

• 1 x large pillowcase
• Double-sided adhesive backed Velcro (dots or strips)

How to make it:

• Take the pillow case so that the open end is at the bottom
• On the top, stick Velcro to top left (rough) and top right corner (soft) so that when folded in half and pressed together the Velcro will stick
• Stick on their favourite printable badges or signs above

4. Fun in the Superhero Cave

Superheroes are all about making things safe! So here are some superhero tips - our 5 safe jumper rules to follow when playing on your Springfree Trampoline.

1. NO FLIPS: Untrained jumpers can land on their head and neck, causing serious injury.

2. ONE AT A TIME: Having a single jumper eliminates the chance of collisions and injuries. And NEVER DOUBLE-BOUNCE!  

3. SUPERVISE: A responsible adult should keep an eye on the jumper. 

4. SAFE CLEARANCE: Keep enough space around the trampoline (we recommend 1.5 metres) to allow room for the net to flex out. It’s also important to have safe overhead clearance of 6m.

5. KEEP IT LOCKED: Zipping the net when the trampoline is not being used will keep unwanted jumpers away. 

And for safe superhero play with our FlexrHoop™, here are some other superhero guidelines; 

• Do not hang from or pull down on the hoop rim
• Do not attempt to jump on the ball as this may cause serious injury
• Do not intentionally rebound off the enclosure or intentionally jump into the enclosure. DO NOT hang, kick, cut or climb on the enclosure/basketball system
• Keep players faces away from the backboard, rim, and net

Now that we've covered the safety rules every superhero needs to follow to combat evil and injury, it's onto the fun parts of being a superhero like the feeling of flying!

Defeat Those Aliens!

One of the most popular Smart Trampoline games on tgoma is Alien Stomp! Put your caped crusader to work to stomp those aliens, and save the backyard from their wrath! With our world-first tgoma technology, sensors on the mat detect your every move, as your jumps control fun, educational and active games on tablet! 

Superhero Hoop Challenges! 

Here are some safe moves to test out your superpower skills with the Flexrhoop™!

• Skill challenge: score each superhero out of 10 on how high you jump and slam dunk (the skill is in getting the ball into the hoop – but remember no hanging off!)
• Distance challenge: using chalk, mark distances to shoot hoops from (each mark gives you different score). Every superhero takes a shot from each mark and whoever scores the most points wins!
• Time challenge – how many hoops can you get in 20 seconds?   

5. Superhero Snap Shots

Grab a blue sheet, your skyline cut outs, white cardboard cut-out cloud shapes or cushions and toy planes. Now get the kids to pretend they’re flying. Take a snap shot from above and you have your own Superhero snap shot! Another great shot for superheros with capes is an action shot jumping on your Springfree, with arms extended in front – the cape will catch the air, creating some great superhero action shots! 

Now go forth and create your very own superhero trampoline headquarters and save your backyard from the neighbourhood villians.