It's a bird...it's a plane...it's Captain Capital!

I love it when I have a "teacher moment."  


You know the moments I'm talking about, when you get a glimpse into how your hard work and long hours might be making a difference.  Those times when you are blessed with a little peek into how a lesson you taught ignited an interest that didn't evaporate with the mention of recess.  


That is exactly how I felt when one of my kids told me what happened when he took home  his...pencil.  His pencil?  That's right...his pencil.


He excitedly relayed that when his older sister saw him doing his homework with his special super-powered pencil, she ran to her room. Moments later, she reappeared with her very own pencil from years ago.  It seems the pencil was so special, that it had found a treasured spot amongst her keepsakes.  Even better, when it resurfaced, the rules for capitalization were recited with great eloquence. *sigh*  I love it when that happens.  

You're probably wondering what kind of special pencil could earn such an honor.  To answer your question...it's a pencil of heroic proportions.  

 The story started with me, a pencil, a piece of felt, and a late night date with the glue gun.

After a few snips and a glue gun induced encounter with some aloe vera, I had everything loaded in my teacher tote.  I was ready for my lesson on capitalization.  


At school, I introduced capital letters by reading The Mega-Delux Capitalization Machine.  When we were done, I told the class we had a special letter from a mischievous villain named...lowercase larry {GASP}.  We looked at the letter and knew right away something was not right.


The kiddos pointed out all the words that should have been capitalized and I told them just how upsetting this was in my I'm-not-at-all-an-overdramitic-teacher-way and they were in total agreement...WE.HAD.A.PROBLEM!  


Wiping the sweat off my brow, I told them we had a special guest who was there to save the day.  Enter...Captain Capital!  He swooped down and in no time he had all the letters that should have been capitalized edited and ready for correction.  After his work was done he left a whole set of his friends behind and the kids were SUPER excited about capitalization.  They couldn't wait to get to work.  Seriously.  Who can resist a super hero?


Here's how you can turn your students' pencils into this helpful super hero.  Pencils will be "flying" all over your room as your students eagerly add capital letters to any proper noun that stands in their way.

Use the patterns to trace and cut the felt.  You will need some super powers of your own to get a class set cut out...push through the hand cramps...it will be worth it.

Glue your cape to the pencil.  This is very important.  If you skip this part your pencil won't be able to fly.

Attach the body by glueing it to each side of the cape near the top  Be sure to leave the silver top and eraser exposed.

Add the emblem and eraser head and your ready to conquer capital letters!

I bought these cute eraser heads here but you can use plain ones and make your own face.

I know, I know, it seems like a lot of work but having a "teacher moment" makes it all worth it.  

Maybe, just maybe, a pencil or two will end up with a crumpled cape in the bottom of a middle schoolers closet...one can only hope.