Flat Stanley and The Patchwork Players

Do you know about FLAT STANLEY?

Flat Stanley is a character in a book (one that has been around for a long time!) who among other things, after he gets squashed flat by a bulletin board, goes on a trip to California in an envelope. It's just too expensive to take a plane.....A creative teacher decided to give their class the chance to send Stanley on a trip and asked the family member or friend to take Stanley on an adventure, take photos and mail them back to the class. This has resulted in the Flat Stanley Project. Take a look at some of his adventures: He has been to Paris, to the Great Wall of China, to the Oscars..... www.flatstanleyproject.com

Patti's niece, Amanda, in Dallas sent Flat Stanley to visit us a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to take him on some California storytelling adventures. Here is the note that went back to her class:

Dear Amanda and Cass,

We sure had a good time with Flat Stanley when he visited us in San Diego, California. He went along on many adventures.

You know that your Aunt Patti works as a professional storyteller, so Flat Stanley got to go along with me on several storytelling days.

The first was at the Vista Public Library. There he helped to do a storytime for preschool children celebrating Earth Day. You see the photos of him on the Earth ball and outside the library.

Next, he went along with Aunt Patti and her storytelling partner, James to another city and
library, almost on the Mexican border: The Chula
Vista Public Library. There is a photo of Flat Stanley and Aunt Patti and James outside of the
library, and then on stage with a group of kids
who helped act out stories. They sent their
greetings to the kids in Dallas.

On our way back home, we stopped off in Downtown San
Diego so Stanley could visit the Maritime Museum. There he saw the Star of India (a great old fashioned ocean ship) as well s one of the ships that was used in filming The Pirates of the Caribbean. He liked going into the museum and getting on one of the model ships himself (more his size).

The next day, Aunt Patti took him along to downtown Oceanside, where I live, to see the Oceanside Pier. The Pacific Oceans is about 5 miles form our house. He liked watching the surfers as well as seeing a whole bunch of cheerleaders who were getting ready for a competition.

His next great adventure was to go along to a special event at LEGOLAND California. James and I were telling stories there for a fundraising event to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. This is a disease that makes a lot of people sick. LEGOLAND lets this event happen there in order to help out. We told stories to the children who were at the event. The children either were also walking to raise money to help the people with MS, or were volunteering themselves, or had a family member who was sick. They all loved to hear the stories. Flat Stanley also liked to help out a good cause.

LEGOLAND is one of my favorite places. James
and I tell stories there every Halloween for the Brick or Treat event. You can see some fun photos of Stanley as we brought him around the outside of LEGOLAND and the area where the MS Walk was taking place. He especially liked to have his photo taken with one of the Giant LEGO guys as well as the Chixfilet cow.

On our way home, we stopped at the Carlsbad Flower Fields, a place where they grow beautiful flowers every spring. You can see Stanley with the flowers in the background.

We hope that your class really enjoys hearing all about Stanley's adventures and learns something, too about how big of a country and world we live in.

Thanks for giving us a chance to help out!

Hope to see you this summer,

Love, Aunt Patti