Flat Stanley Project

A fun way to teach geography to your class is using Flat Stanley! My students mailed Flat Stanley out to a relative or friend anywhere in the world. The Flat Stanley returned with a new outfit, information about where they visited, pictures, and so much more! We tracked every place he had visited using a map and string. We had strings connect from Arizona to every single place he went to, measuring the farthest place and more.

SAMPLE LETTER TO PARTICIPANTS:

Dear ______________________________,

Our class is involved in a very fun and exciting Geography project based on the book "Flat Stanley" written by Jeff Brown. In the book Flat Stanley is flattened by a falling bulletin board. One of the many advantages is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by traveling in an envelope.

In this project, the students make paper Flat Stanley’s and mail them to friends, relatives, famous people, and schools. You have been chosen to be a very special part of our project. We hope that you will treat Stanley like a guest. Take him with you when you can and record each of his adventures in his daily journal. In the middle of the journal is a map. Please color in the state where you live. You may keep Flat Stanley from 2-7 days. We would appreciate it if you would mail Stanley back to us at school. You will find our address at the bottom of this letter. Each student will keep track of where Stanley has been by marking the map we have in our classroom when we receive your letter. Although it is not necessary, the students love getting pictures and postcards from Stanley.

We hope that you will help us with this project by hosting Stanley for a week and mailing us to let us know about your city & state. Our goal is to learn about many different places before the end of our school year.

Here is what you can talk about in your journal back to us:

• Weather – Current temperature as well as some seasonal ranges.
• Location –Name of city/suburb and proximity to major cities.
• Population – How many people in your city/school?
• Special to your location – Describe favorite local activities, sports, hobbies, and sites of interest and industries. What do you like best about where you are?
• Seasonal Activities – Here in Arizona, we don’t have 4 different seasons! What are your seasons like and what kinds of activities do you do? What do we have in common?
• Freebies – Consider sending little inclusions with your replies. Local leaves, coins, stickers, post cards, and photos all add to the learning.

Thank you for adding knowledge and information for not only the child you are responding to, but to our entire class as we share your contribution together.