The Carmans: Flat Me's

A 1st grade teacher at the school my aunt teaches at in Missouri gave a project to her class - each student creates a 'Flat Me'... have you heard the Flat Stanley story by Jeff Brown? If not, here it is...

Stanley Lambchop is a young boy who has the misfortune of being under a bulletin board when it falls off the wall. He is completely flattened like a piece of paper! Stanley discovers that being flat isn't all-bad. He can slide under doors and retrieve items from hard to reach places. He even gets flown like a kite! He receives an invitation to visit a friend in California destination!

So for this class project, the Flat Me's are created by each student on a piece of paper that has been cut into the shape of a person. The student uses crayons, markers, yarn and other things to decorate their Flat Me to look like themselves. Trust me, they get very creative! I assume the teacher gets a list of family and friends from other teachers in the school and then the Flat Me's are sent all over the country!

My mom and I have participated in this project last year and this year and it has been so much fun! One student in the class sends their Flat Me to my mom and I get one sent to me also. Last year, Flat Ashley was sent to me. This year, Flat Jessica came to visit! We have the Flat Me's for about 2 weeks and the idea is to take them wherever we go so they can experience where we live and the things that we do.

After taking pictures of the things that the Flat Me gets to do, we put it all into a story, like a small book. Then we send the Flat Me's, the story, and the pictures, back to Missouri where the student reads the story and shows the pictures in front of the class. Mom and I have really enjoyed participating. Wanting to be an elementary school teacher myself, I really like to be creative with this project! Mom and I both made little things for the Flat Me's to remind them of their trip... this year, I made a Texas cowgirl hat for Flat Ashley! Mom made Flat Jazmin a Georgia t-shirt and flip flops!

Here are a few pictures...

LAST YEAR: