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Our Fine, Flat Friend
 My son’s school has just concluded a three week Winter break during which we went to Las Vegas for a few days... clearly not the literary capital of the world, but we did get a lot of reading in. He worked on a wonderful vacation project based on the book “Flat Stanley” by Jeff Brown First. After his teacher read the book to his class, each child colored their own Stanley paper doll, which she laminated for preservation purposes. Each child was instructed to involve Stanley in their vacation activities, whether taking a trip or celebrating the holidays. The children were to take pictures of Stanley in these settings and write down their adventures in a special kid-created journal. It was also OK to mail Stanley to far-flung friends or relatives and have them take Stanley on (documented) adventures.
My son’s Stanley came with us to Las Vegas, posed in front of the Luxor, saw his first snow, went to a Medieval dinner at the Excalibur (and had his picture taken with a gallant knight who gamely hoisted Stanley aloft as a watching mom shouted out “hey, that’s Flat Stanley!”). Stanley also went to the Natural History Museum, Knott’s Berry Farm and had his picture taken with the sister of the actress who plays Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, who was starring in a local play. That young lady was also very familiar with Stanley. It was amazing to see how many onlookers recognized the little guy; it’s been sort of like traveling with a celebrity. My husband has pointed out that I’m much more into the whole process than our son, but as he put together the Flat Stanley Holiday 2002-2003 Scrapbook, I can tell that this project brought the book alive for him. Proof positive that reading IS fun!
While our son’s wonderful First Grade teacher didn’t invent the Flat Stanley project, I’m ever grateful for her creativity in implementing it and enhancing our holiday experience. If you’d like to see some online Flat Stanley projects, you can Google the little guy or try this link at http://www.flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca to view the Official Flat Stanley site with links to others.
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