Sometimes, you just have to let off a little steam.

That idea was the driving force behind a special celebration held Friday afternoon at Valley Forge Elementary School.

“We were trying to do something to help the children alleviate some stress, get them ready for the TCAP testing next week and tell them we believe in them,” Valley Forge Elementary Principal LeeAnn Carr said. “We’ve been working on this for two or three weeks.”

In recent weeks, the students have been studying hard and taking practice exams to get ready for the state assessment tests. This past week, Carr said the school teachers and staff had been doing more fun activities to allow the children to have some down time to relax.

The theme for Friday’s celebration was superheroes and classroom doors were decorated with superhero logos and positive messages to inspire the children. This week, the students painted t-shirts saying “We learn, what’s your super power” and many of the students were wearing their shirt on Friday.

To kick off the celebration, several of the school’s teachers and staff gave a special performance for the children. The song was to the tune of the popular song “All About That Bass,” but the lyrics were adapted to represent the TCAPs. The teachers and staff performed a choreographed dance as they sang “Because you know I’m all about that test, ’bout that test, no failure.”

Students also received some special visitors Friday afternoon in the form of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man — better known at the school by their alter egos of teachers Richard Thomas, Ricky Garrison and David Arwood — who tossed prizes to the students and posed for pictures.

“Next week we are counting on you all to be superheroes,” Carr told the students during the special assembly. “We believe in you. We believe you can do it and we need you to believe in you, too.”

The superhero theme was selected to help encourage the students to show their talents.

“We’re trying to tell the students that they are superheroes,” Carr said. “We tried to do a whole month of teaching them to show themselves strong and do well on the test.”