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| The original "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown |
The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a third grade school teacher in London, Ontario,
Canada. It is meant to facilitate letter-writing by schoolchildren to
each other as they document where Flat Stanley has accompanied them.
Dale Hubert received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2001 for the Flat Stanley Project.
The Project provides an opportunity for students to make connections
with students of other member schools who have signed up with the
project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming acquainted with
the story. They create paper "Flat Stanleys" (representative drawings
of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal
for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat
Stanley is involved. Each student's Flat Stanley and its respective
journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a
visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a
period of time. The project has many similarities to the traveling gnome prank except, of course, for the Flat Stanley Project's focus on literacy.
Students may find it fun to plot Flat Stanley's travels on maps and
share the contents of the journal. Often, a Flat Stanley returns with a
photo or postcard from his visit. Some teachers prefer to use e-mail for its quicker travel time.
In 2005, more than 6,500 classes from 48 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project.
The project was featured in a 2004 episode of the animated TV series King of the Hill, in which Nancy Gribble receives a Flat Stanley in the mail. Peggy Hill and Luanne Platter photograph it in a number of dangerous situations, resulting in the school's Flat Stanley Project being cancelled.
According to the February 26, 2009 broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Flat Stanley was on board US Airways Flight 1549 which landed safely in the Hudson River. He was carried to safety in the briefcase of his traveling companion.
In early 2010, Darren Haas, a huge Flat Stanley advocate and
applications architect, approached Dale Hubert with the idea of turning
the Flat Stanley Project concept into an app for the iPhone.
Also in 2010, fans of the baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals were asked (via the team website) to petition US President Barack Obama to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial.
A "Flat Stan" downloadable cutout figure was made available to
encourage Cardinals fans to take a photo with Musial's caricature and
send them in as petitions.
- Flat Stanley Books
- The Flat Stanley Project
- Flat Stanley in Jerusalem
- This show is part of the Broadway Junior Collection:
- Flat Stanley at Pinterest
- Flat Stanley at I Can Read
a project by Micah Gray
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