Flat Stanley Video Project

My lesson with the students was to first read the Flat Stanley book to them and introduce them to the assignment. Next I had them color and cut out their Flat Stanleys and then write in their journals about what they did with him while he was still in Saipan. When I returned to the class, they prepared letters to their "pen-pals" in the states and sent them off instructing the recipients to take Flat Stanley to various places in their location that are of historical or cultural significance. The recipients of these Flat Stanleys were also asked to log into the provided journal with an entry of where he went and what he did.

The students LOVED working on their Flat Stanleys and enjoyed every moment of the project from when I was there. They were a little disappointed that they had to cover their faces due to the fact that this was to be shown over the internet, but they were understanding. They loved the coloring and creative writing from their own journals. Most journals were about what the students did with Flat Stanley while on Saipan.

Since I've been a classroom teacher for 11 years, I have already had many experiences working with students on projects such as that with Flat Stanley. In fact, our class was a recipient of Flat Stanley for two years in a row. As you will see in the slide show and movie, Flat "Shawna" took a visit to a couple of sites in Saipan such as Bird Island and Old Man by the Sea (with the help of Photoshop of course). There are no changes that I would have made. But I DO like the idea of having the students put their own names next to the "Flat" as that gives each of them the chance to travel around the world to different locations. It also gives each of them a chance to do their own journaling with the cut out of themselves. I would also think about the ideas of upgrading the Flat Stanley project with more technology including Blogging (instead of journaling), e-mailing (instead of snail-mail), and using digital photo-editing (such as what I had done previously with my students).

What I learned most from doing this project, was how to "technologize" it into a creative movie and slide show. I also was able to put in some of my music into the background :). But the most important thing is that the students learned a lot with letter and journal-writing and also had fun reading their journals in front of the classroom. Overall, it was a fun and great learning experience!

View Flat Stanley Here from Jumpcut site.