Flat Stanley Project

Last night, at our district school board meeting, three 4th grade students, their teacher, and our building principal presented their Virtual Flat Stanley projects to our community via public access television. Every year our 4th graders at Coastal Ridge Elementary School send out a flat version of themselves to family, friends and friends-of-friends all over the world hoping to get a feel for the cultural that their flat versions of themselves will "see" while they are visiting. It's truly amazing to see their enthusiastic faces when packages arrive via snail mail to the school full of photos, brochures, and souvenirs from lands afar accompanied by their folded up flat self.

As adults we have taken for granted receiving mail through the postal service as we have grown up with that form of communication, and probably do not really care if we receive it via a mailbox or in our email inbox any more. Well, unless it's a package. We all love getting packages in the mail. The kids, on the other hand, do not have much experience with writing and receiving actual tangible letters and packages in the mail any more, and their eyes just light up when something comes to the school addressed to them. It's like Christmas morning to them!

After opening their packages and sharing with the rest of their classmates all about their flat selves' visit to lands beyond our little community, they start converting everything to digital format. Photos are scanned in, brochures, posters and souvenirs are captured via a document camera or webcam. The students in Miss Switzer's class then compile all of their digital artifacts and create mini web pages using Apple's iWeb to share what they have learned through their 2D portrayal's travels. This is exactly what the students were presenting to our school board and community last night. The students did a fabulous job and their web pages, each individual unique, are on display for the whole world to see. This is a wonderful project, and everyone in Miss Switzer's class should feel very proud of their accomplishments!

Check out all of the students' web pages on Miss Switzer's Flat Stanley Project page.