Midvalley: Traveling with Flat Stanley
Students send cutouts of a popular book character to people all over the world
By Tabatha Deans, Close-Up Staff Salt Lake Tribune (March 20, 2008)

Second-graders in Rhea Hristou's class at St. Vincent DePaul School in Holladay are learning about geography by following the adventures of their classroom friend - Flat Stanley.

Students colored pictures of the popular children's book character from the 1964 book written by Jeff Brown. In the book, Stanley is accidentally flattened when a bulletin board hanging over his bed falls on him. Stanley realizes the benefits of being flat, like being able to slide under doors and acting as a kite for his little brother.

Hristou's students sent Stanley across the world in letters they wrote to families, friends and political leaders, asking them to take Stanley to exciting places. "Everyone's been very responsive," said Hristou. "Some even made little scrapbooks with Stanley and his travels and sent them back."

Students received pictures of Stanley in more than 30 U.S. states, with Tibetan monks, and hanging out in China, India, Peru, Poland and Washington, D.C.

Student Kate Kranz, 8, thought Stanley would like to see Washington, and sent him, along with her letter, to Senator Orrin Hatch. "I was really shocked when I opened the FedEx envelope and found a picture of Sen. Hatch holding Flat Stanley," said Hristou. "He sent a nice letter along with the picture. That was an exciting day for second-graders."

The Flat Stanley project, according to Hristou, helps students get excited about geography, learn directions and encourages good letter-writing skills. "We start by giving the students a blank map with names of states or countries," said Hristou. "When we get them back we identify where they are on the map."

Charting Stanley's travels challenged students to learn about the continents and various bodies of water. Students used push pins to mark the places Stanley visited on the class's world map. "We had 30 Stanleys traveling the globe," Hristou said, "and each day when I checked the mail at lunch, the students were excited to see if I had any new letters in my hands."

Hristou has used Flat Stanley to help her students learn for the past 10 years and said the project is always exciting, but getting a response from the U.S. senator was very nice. "I was very excited," she said. "I really didn't even know if it would come back."

Photo Credit: The Salt Lake Tribune