Have you ever gone on an adventure with Flat Stanley?? It was one of my students’ favorite activities in second grade!
We would read the original novel by Jeff Brown (there’s a whole series) together. It is a wonderful story about a a young boy who is flattened (but unharmed) by a bulletin board. He then shares his adventures being only 1/2 an inch thick. One of his adventures includes mailing himself across the country in an envelope. So, as a class, we create our own Flat Stanley projects!
I sent letters home to parents, asking each student to bring in at least one address of a family member or friend who lived outside of our town (the farther away. the better!). Not all students would bring in an address, but some students would bring in multiple so everyone was able to send at least one Flat Stanley out.
Once we had the addresses, each student designed their own Flat Stanley with a template that I provided. We would write a letter to our Flat Stanley’s recipient with instructions to take him on an adventure. In the envelope, we would also include a blank fact sheet for the recipient to fill out about their state/country. Side note: our class would use my How to Write a Letter packet to learn how to set up their envelope and friendly letter.
If a student didn’t have an address to send their Flat Stanley to, they could take him on their own adventure over the weekend. They would create a Travel Journal for him, detailing what they did in pictures and words.
As each student received their Flat Stanley back (hopefully!), they would fill out an info sheet for our class binder. It became a great reference tool for our classroom library! You could also use this Studying the States packet to research our country and create a binder for the class.
We would also track Flat Stanley’s travels on our very own maps. Each student has a file folder with two maps in it, one of the USA and one of the world. We would color in a state or place a star on the country once Flat Stanley visited there. The students were so excited to do this! And it was great geography practice too!
As we read the book, the students would also answer comprehension questions, practice their vocabulary and complete some activity sheets to show their understanding of the novel.
Everything in this post can be found in my Flat Stanley Project pack so that you can re-create it in your own classroom!
