Bradt Primary School second-graders in Laurie Welch’s class are experiencing different communities and parts of the world in an interesting and creative way through the Flat Stanley Project.
Flat Stanley is a children’s book written by the late Jeff Brown. In the book, a bulletin board falls on Stanley, flattening him. In his new flat form, Stanley can do things regularly sized people can’t, such as travel in an envelope and fit through small cracks.
The Flat Stanley Project expands on the book’s premise and allows students to connect with people all over the world by sending a flat version of themselves to other places.
In Welch’s class, her students made flat images of themselves and created a journal about their experiences as flat people. One of her students, Curt Roscou, 8, sent his flat self along with a few of his flat classmates to his uncle, Stephen Sieck, who is a staff sergeant in Iraq.
We sent five flat kids in a box to Uncle Stephen with snacks, toiletries, baby wipes and a few cameras, said Welch.
Sieck spent a few weeks with Flat Curt and his friends, wrote about his experiences and sent back pictures, a flag and other memorabilia from Iraq. Sieck wrote that the flag was flown over Iraq as a tribute to Welch’s second grade class.
Welch said the Flat Stanley Project connects with social studies, literature and teaches responsibility.
Through the pictures and a letter from Sieck, the students got a better idea of what it’s like to be in Iraq. Sieck sent pictures of the flat people doing different things around his base, such as flying in planes, sleeping in the bunks and playing in the desert. Sieck also drew a map of Iraq to give the students an idea about where he is stationed.
Besides teaching the students, the project gave Sieck and his friends a connection to home.
`I think they really enjoyed it,` said Debbie Roscou, Sieck’s sister. `It gave them something exciting to do. It’s a really great project.`
Welch has been participating in the Flat Stanley Project for eight years. Welch’s students kicked off the project at the beginning of the year, when the class first read the book.
Besides sending flat people to Iraq, students sent their flat people home with friends, to relatives and to their pen pals in the Waterveliet School District.
`The students learned about three different communities: urban, rural and suburban, and many of them have become so interested in Flat Stanley that they have read other books in the series on their own,` Welch said.
The students showed an excitement about the project and were eager to talk about where each of their Flat Stanley’s had gone and their adventures.
`My Flat Stanley went bowling with my pen pal,` said 8-year-old Tenny Picou.
For more information about the Flat Stanley Project visit www.flatstanley.com. “