Gone ‘Flat’ Jefferson Students Use A Book Character To Travel The World

Flat Stanley has been to Mexico, Japan and the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, and all for the cost of a few postage stamps.

Part Curious George, part Carmen Sandiego, Flat Stanley is a paper cartoon character who second- and third-graders at Jefferson Elementary decorate, fold and mail around the world. The letters and pictures mailed back teach them about communities, cultures and geography.

Writing and art also get a turn in the lesson plan. Students write a story about Flat Stanley’s adventures and either illustrate it or use the pictures people send back.

“It amazes me that a project that started out teaching simply measurement has evolved into something so big,” said teacher Nancy Avery. “It’s been a joy to watch the kids’ imaginations stirred so much.”

Avery got the idea from a 1960s children’s book titled”Flat Stanley,” by Jeff Brown. She reads the book to her classes every year. In the book, a little boy is squished like a pancake by a blackboard. After several “flat” adventures, Stanley is inflated back to normal with a bicycle pump.

The fact that students already have heard some of Stanley’s adventures gives them more confidence when they write, Avery said.

“Kids this age don’t see themselves as writers because they don’t have enough words,” she said. “But when they write about Flat Stanley, they just recollect what he did, or even embellish it.”

In that sense, Stanley acts to liberate the students’ creative process, Avery said.

“Because he’s a paper doll, anything’s possible,” she said.

When Avery started using Stanley six years ago, it was to teach measurements. In the book, Flat Stanley is uniquely proportioned at 4 feet tall, 1 foot wide and only a half-inch thick, and she would have students practice measuring the dimensions.

Avery got the idea for mailing Flat Stanley from an adventure in the book where he mails himself.

At the beginning of the year, Avery gives each student a Flat Stanley sketch to color and cut out. He’s variously depicted with crayoned-in glasses, ties, gloves, athletic clothes or even business suits.

Then the students take the cartoon home for a weekend. Their assignment is to write about what they did with Flat Stanley.

He’s gone to farms, parks, restaurants and playgrounds. His experiences reflect the adventures, and misadventures, you might expect of most little boys and girls.

Second-grader Amanda Thompson sent Flat Stanley to relatives in Colville, Wash., where the paper character got to visit a lumber mill.

“They have these things that carry logs,” the 7-year-old explained shyly. “People cut them up into boards and sell them.”

Like Amanda, every student was more interested in what they were learning because they had a personal connection to the experience via their Stanley, Avery said.

“It’s like sending your best friend,” she said.

However, not all of the doll’s excursions worked out as well.

When Flat Stanley went with student James Oberg to Manito Park, they rode an imaginary roller coaster.

“After the ride, Flat Stanley threw up,” he wrote. “Then they went home. The end.”

One student, 8-year-old Cody Washburn, forgot to take Flat Stanley out of his bookbag when he took him home. Washburn ended up writing about Stanley’s adventures that weekend inside his backpack.

The next assignment was to mail Flat Stanley somewhere in the world. The students learned how to write letters and address envelopes. The letters they sent asked the recipient to take Flat Stanley with them for a day, take a picture of him doing something and then write back about the trip.

Most students sent Stanley to relatives in the United States. Avery marked each place the dolls went on a map in the classroom.

In Pennsylvania, Flat Stanley visited Amish farmers who don’t use electrical machines, students learned. In New Hampshire, he got to see Dartmouth College.

When Flat Stanley went to Seattle in early December, he went downtown during the WTO protests. Pictures sent back of the trip show Stanley with bystanders, protesters and even police in riot gear who smiled for the camera as they held up the character.

Tamara White, a student teacher in Avery’s class last year, took Stanley to Aguas Calientes, Mexico, where she studied for a quarter.

“By taking him down there, Avery’s kids got to associate children’s faces - real people - with the place,” White said.

The exercise is an enlightening experience for Avery. By reading the stories her students write, Avery learns about their families, their likes and dislikes, their successes and failures. Flat Stanley has helped her be closer to her class.

Also, her students’ motivation rubs off.

“Their enthusiasm is really refreshing and regenerating,” Avery said.

Students in her class really get into the teaching unit, she said. As 7-year-old Sabina Noll explains, Flat Stanley is a clever way to learn.

“I think that it’s really neat because he’s been on TV and in the news,” Noll said. “It’s really cool that we can design these little paper dolls that bring all the information back.”

The energy boost is well-received during the middle of the school year, when teachers’ energy can flag, Avery said.

“It absolutely lifts your heart,” she said.