April 30, 2008

Lancaster third graders enjoy ‘Flat Stanley’ projects

By ANDREW FEEBACK

Some third grade students at Lancaster Elementarty School have had the opportunity to communicate with others in different states through a fun project involving a book the students recently read.

The Adventures of Flat Stanley is a story about a boy who is flattened when a bulletin board falls on him during the night. Because he is flattened, he can travel to many different places that normal people can’t.

This story had been a part of the reading curriculum for years prior to this, and the idea for the project came from a website listed in the back of the book.

The project’s purpose was for each Flat Stanley to be mailed to someone else, who would take him on “an adventure,” or at least on a lengthy trip.

Each student designed their own Flat Stanley from one original model. The students then wrote a letter to their relatives, explaining the project and its purpose. This fulfilled the letter writing standards of the school’s curriculum. Once the relatives received the letter and project, they took Flat Stanley to many different places and kept track of everywhere they had gone. When this was done, the relatives mailed Flat Stanley back to his owner.

As part of the social studies curriculum, the students then wrote reports about the states that their Flat Stanley visited. These states were all over the country, and one even went all the way to Australia! Ironically, this Flat Stanley’s recipient was none other than former Bluffton High School and Michigan State basketball star Adam Ballinger.

Mrs. Megan Johnson, one of the teachers involved in the project, said that the students have found the Flat Stanly projects to be a great pleasure. “It’s really gone well, and so far the kids have loved it,” she said. The other four teachers in charge of this activity include Mrs. Weldy, Mrs. Jones, Ms. Longenberger and Mr. Hedges.

Out of all the Flat Stanleys created and mailed so far, only two of them have yet to return to Lancaster Elementary. Once they do, they will join their counterparts in what is already an intriguing display in the school’s third grade hallway.