Flat Stanley Project

The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by a 3rd Grade school teacher in Canada as a way to facilitate letter writing among school children.  It provided an opportunity for students to make connections with other students that were involved in the project  This particular teacher received an award for Teaching Excellence in 2001 for the Flat Stanley Project.  Today it is still going strong and has been such a great project that has spread to schools worldwide.  

It all started with this book, Flat Stanley, written by Jeff Brown in 1964.  

In the story, a boy named Stanley Lambchomp accidentally gets flattened by a large bulletin board.  He survives and makes the best of his flattened state and soon starts entering rooms by sliding under the door and playing with his younger brother by being used as a kite.  One special advantage is that Flat Stanley can now be mailed in an envelope and he then starts to have many adventures.  One of which is getting mailed to a friend's family in California.  They show him around their home and state and also do fun things with him.  
Eventually Stanley gets changed back to his proper shape with a bicycle pump.

The project:

The students begin by reading the book and becoming familiar with the story.  They then make paper "Flat Stanleys" and keep a journal over a few days to document the places and activities in which Flat Stanley was involved, and can include the date, weather and other interesting facts about where they are located.  The Flat Stanley and the journal get mailed to other people who will be asked to do the same thing and treat Flat Stanley as a guest and add to his journal and then mail back (or even on to another location) after his visit.  Some students will plot out where Flat Stanley has been and share the journal entries, which may even include a postcard or picture from his visit.

I actually had the chance to do the Flat Stanley Project with students when I was working in 2nd Grade and it was awesome!!!  For the most part, it followed the same guidelines as above, all the students made a Flat Stanley but that resembled themselves, made a journal for their Flat Self and then sent it off with a letter explaining the story of Flat Stanley and what to do with him when he visited.  Whoever the students sent their Flat Self to then had the opportunity to send it along somewhere different for another visit or send it back to the student at the school.  We actually had a huge map and would plot out where all the Flat Selves had been.  It was so neat to hear all the fun adventures and some of them even had pictures included.  

I was able to dig up a picture I had of Our Flat Adventures map.

I remember thinking how cool it would be to have a chance to be on the other side of the Flat Stanley Project, not helping students with the project, but actually get a chance to participate in it!  

I also thought, how special for those students who Flat Selves got to have Foreign Travels!

Well, it turns out, I'm getting my chance to participate in the Flat Stanley Project!!!

Meet Flat Tony

He safely arrived in Moscow, Russia today (and don't ask at what cost...mailing something here via FedEx is close to highway robbery) and will be spending the next couple weeks with our family, exploring Moscow city and also going with us on our vacation to Dubai.  He'll be glad to quickly get out of here and into some sunshine once he experiences that it's still pretty cold where we live!!

I will be sure to post in a few weeks about Flat Tony's adventures with us!!