Friday, May 4, 2012

My Friend Stanley

Let me tell you about this guy I know. He is made out of paper and came to visit my home just before Easter. His name is Flat Stanley.


 "This is what he looked like when he got here, I forgot to take a picture of him before I sent him home all dressed up in his bunad...I know, my bad!"

"Flat Stanley" lives flat on a page and can fly around the world in an envelope. He is part of a project for teaching children about reading, writing, and learning about new places in the world. My Flat Stanley came to visit me from Ohio, USA and this is what he wrote in the travel journal in took back to his class:
 
When I first arrived in Larvik, Norway-- running into the Trolls scared me the most. Lucky for me Larvik is by the sea and Trolls live up in the mountains.  From Ohio to Norway, (as the crow flies) there are over 4000 miles of land and sea. Larvik is a small town in Norway known for having been the home to a great explorer named Thor Heyerdahl and a ship builder whose name was Colin Archer. Colin Archer built a famous ship called Fram that explored the North Pole. Not sure if he ever saw Santa there or not, but I bet he saw a lot of reindeer. If you go far enough North in Norway you do go over the polar circle. There are Polar bears there but I did not get to see any here in Larvik. What I did get to see are Viking graves and those are pretty cool. There are huge mounds all over Larvik and in these mounds are Vikings that have been buried with everything they owned, even their ships!

Easter here is very strange. It lasts a whole week and most Norwegians go up into the mountains to stay in a cabin and go skiing. There are no Easter baskets, but there are lots of Easter eggs and the kids here get big ones filled with chocolate. I did not understand the language because it is very strange but luckily the family I stayed with has an American mother and her whole family speaks English very well. They gave me this outfit that I am wearing. It is called a Bunad, which is their national costume. The 17th of May is their National day and almost everyone wears one of these costumes on that day and they all go in big parades and eat lots of ice cream. These costumes are different depending on where in Norway you come from. I am wearing the one from Larvik, so what do you think? I wish I could have stayed longer so I could have gone in a parade and eaten lots of ice cream too. Maybe someday I will come back and see some Polar Bears and Reindeer. Maybe even some Trolls.


Have you heard of the Flat Stanley Project? One of my blogging friends gave my name to a teacher in Ohio, after I agreed to participate, and I am so glad that I did. If you happen to see him somewhere around your home, make sure to say hi from me!

Have a great week-end everyone. I will back on Monday with a reflection post on the A-Z challenge, hope to see you then.







11 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's a fun idea. Do you send him back to the teacher or on to a new destination?

Hart Johnson said...

Oh, lucky Stanley! We had a flat stanely come visit us from Oregon a couple years back--a friend of mine had a son--maybe he was 9--and she went over the places she had friends with him so he could pick where flat Stanley went and he picked Michigan. Norway is MUCH better though! Very fun!

Bossy Betty said...

Sounds like Stanley had a great time! When he came here he got to visit the ocean and climb a lemon tree.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Siv .. sounds like a fun project for the kids ... and adults alike, by the sound of it ..

Cheers Hilary

Lynn Proctor said...

so creative--i love it--and my daughter would love that may thing on her birthday!

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Oh girlfriend, we had a Down's Syndrome boy in my Special Ed. classroom who would obsess on a book. I hid 'Flat Stanley' when he got on the school bus sideways 'cause he WAS Flat Stanley.

This is one cool project!

God bless and have a fantastic weekend sweetie!!! :o)

Anonymous said...

i have not heard of this project but I love it! What a great and fun way to teach kids about other places!

Botanist said...

Yes, I think we played host to Flat Stanley a few years ago.

A much longer time ago (about 20 years, maybe?) my wife had a toy figure at work that one of her co-workers "kidnapped" one day and took on vacation. She got postcards and photos mailed back of this toy on the beach, and after that it got passed around the whole office and traveled the world. That was before we even heard of Flat Stanley :)

Susan Kane said...

I love the idea! I must tell this to teacher friends!

Anonymous said...

Making the rounds after the A to Z Challenge to say hello!

I've heard of Flat Stanley. I think it is a fun project.

Susanne
PUTTING WORDS DOWN ON PAPER

Callie Leuck said...

Oh, it is so good to hear about Flat Stanley again! When I was a child, we read a book about Flat Stanley, and we sent one off to someone in another state. Fond memories!