Flat Stanley is a book by Jeff Brown. I will be reading this book to my Kindergarten class in chapter installments during the month of September. Around the third week of September our class will write a new chapter of the book, describing some further adventures of Stanley. We will make Flat Stanley drawings of our own. I will give each child some simple shapes to trace, color and cut to make Stanley. He is basically a circle head, square shirt, rectangle arms and pants, and oval feet (to print out).

We will mail our Stanley drawings, a photo, and new chapter to friends and relatives across the country. We will include a brief (two-three-paragraph) description of our class and community telling you about what activities/books/TV shows we like and what it is like where we live. Children will pose for a photograph with their Flat Stanley. I will make doubles of the photos, one to send out and one to keep. Each child will bring to school two stamped envelopes to mail out these packets. One of the envelopes is to first send Stanley out and the other envelope is for Stanley to return.

We will mail the packets out by the end of September. To celebrate the commencement of the Flat Stanley Exchange we will eat pancakes, a flat food mentioned in the book.

To all the teachers who have signed up to exchange with us- when you receive a Stanley you send him back to the originator with your new adventure, class biography, photos and drawings. You also send out your Class Stanley to that person so that they may do likewise with your Stanley. Tip: Please write your address on the back of your Flat Stanley in case he gets separated from his paperwork.

I plan to have the class write a chapter (about our Stanley) and a bio (about our class and community) only one time at the beginning. This I will copy and send out with each child's Stanley. Each child will send out one Stanley. I will send out some extras. I will go down the exchange list and send a third of the student's Stanleys out at a time. Then, as we receive other people's Stanleys, all we have to do is add a brief letter about what their Stanley did while he was visiting our classroom at the time. So, if he comes in October and we are studying skeletons, my student might draw or photograph Stanley shaking hands with a skeleton. If he comes in December, during our unit on cookies, we might take his picture on a tray of cookies that we are going to bake. I will be using a digital camera and scan the photos but any drawing or photograph is fine. The project should not be overwhelming. I will have only one student prepare a response drawing or photograph at a time. This way you will receive one drawing or photograph not twenty.

As our Stanleys return we will make a display of all the letters, photos and drawings. We will use a patriotic border around our display and write the blurb about our community on an outline of our state. If all the other participants do likewise this will make a very nice display. We will mark on a large class map where he has been. We will use the information you send to us about your state and community to learn more about our country and basic geography concepts. See below for extension activities and a sample letter to send out with your Flat Stanley.

Dear Friend,

Our class just read the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. In this funny story a boy named Stanley Lambchop is flattened by a bulletin board. He doesn’t get hurt but the doctor measures him at four feet tall, a foot wide and a half an inch thick! Stanley has many adventures. He gets mailed to California, flies like a kite and even pretends to be a painting to catch sneak thieves. In the end his brother inflates him back to normal with a bicycle pump.

Enclosed is my very own Flat Stanley that I created along with photos and a story our class wrote about him. Please help Stanley to have further adventures during his visit with you. Then in two weeks send him back home in the enclosed stamped envelope (to the address below) along with letters, drawings, and photos to tell us about his time with you. This is primarily a Geography project so please also include information about where you live and what it’s like there.

Thank you,

Mrs. Tunkel’s Kindergarten
Harrison School
12 Harrison Street
North Plainfield, NJ 07060

Tip: Please write your address on the back of your Flat Stanley in case he gets separated from his paperwork.

Stanley was a normal boy, normal boy, normal boy,
Stanley was a normal boy, then a board on him fell.

Stanley Lambchop was flat, was flat, was flat,
Stanley Lambchop was flat, just a half inch thick.

Now Stanley had lots of fun, lots of fun, lots of fun,
Stanley had lots of fun, and made his brother mad.

Then he flew just like a kite, like a kite, like a kite,
Then he flew just like a kite and caught the sneak thieves.

Mathematics Objectives

The Kindergarten students will:

• Identify circle, square, rectangle, and oval
• Measure height and width using a ruler and cubes to determine Flat Stanley’s area
• Estimate how many Flat Stanleys it takes placed end to end to cross the classroom floor
• Sort and categorize Flat Stanleys
• Graph the color of his shirt

Motor Coordination Objectives

The Kindergarten students will:

• Trace shapes to make a Flat Stanley
• Color and cut a Flat Stanley

Social Studies Objectives

The Kindergarten students will:

• Identify the difference between city/state/country in response to questioning
• Locate their state, country and nearest body of water on a map
• List methods of transportation for travelling to different parts of the country

Science Objectives

The Kindergarten students will:

• Make Flat Stanley kites
• Identify that it is air/wind that enables the kites to fly and that air is a force capable of moving things

Language Arts Objectives

The Kindergarten students will:

• Discuss main character, sequence the events, and identify a problem in the story
• Discuss how Stanley feels sad when others tease him about being different
• Compare Flat Stanley to typical children; how is he the same/different
• Write a class story detailing a new adventure for Flat Stanley