Thursday, December 4, 2014

Flat Stanley Project

Hello families!

As your students may have told you, were are beginning our annual Flat Stanley project, but with a few changes. First, this year's project is completely voluntary and will not be for a grade. The benefits of completing the project are amazing (connections with other cultures, curiosity about the world, understanding maps, etc.) but because of time constraints we will not be able to devote the necessary time in class to make the project as wonderful as it can be.

Part 1:
I will print and supply Flat Stanleys on Friday 12/5. Students can take them home and decorate them how they'd like, as long as they are flat and easily scannable. We are going to send our Stanleys by email due to some complications with having them returned last year.

Students will also need to complete our "About Me" Questionnaire to tell their Stanley pen pal about themselves. They may include one printed or drawn picture of themselves on the paper. This will be scanned as well. The Stanleys and questionnaires are due back by Friday 12/12. Once they are scanned I will return the Stanleys to you. Students have been warned that illegible questionnaires or sloppy Stanleys will not be sent! Some of the students that our Stanleys may visit are in classes where they are learning English as a second language.

Part 2:
After we send out our Stanleys, we will hopefully receive Stanleys in return. When they arrive, I will send them home with students who would like to host them. When a student asks to host a Stanley, they are agreeing to complete an "About My Visit" form and to take at least 3 pictures of the Stanley's adventures. These could be as simple as a picture of your family dinner, a picture of the Stanley with your pet dog, a picture of your student and Stanley doing their homework. They could be pictures of every day life or of special occasions and events, it's up to you! The pictures can be printed, emailed to me at grenierc@calvertnet.k12.md.us, or (preferably) posted to our Padlet pages, linked to the right.

What is PADLET???
Padlet is an interactive, online bulletin board, We have a padlet page for each continent, and you are welcome to upload your own Stanley pictures here simply by clicking and dragging them from your desktop onto the appropriate padlet page (most likely North America- unless your family is doing some exciting travel!) Other families will be able to see your pictures as soon as you upload them. I've asked students to be sure that any uploaded picture is captioned with ""Stanley name" posted by "student's first name" in "town or place"" so that I know who posted the picture. For example, "Stanley, posted by Casey in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland" or "Shelly, posted by Casey in Orlando, Florida." Create captions by clicking the pencil icon above your picture when you post.

Part 3: In the future, feel free to take your Stanley on vacations or visits with you and post your adventures on our padlets! Send them to your friends across the country or abroad for a visit. We'd love to see where you and your Stanleys go!