We have a lot of new pictures from our Flat Me characters. Check out Our Travels in the sidebar, December and January, to see some pictures of our Flat characters traveling. Read the comments below and the comments under the photos and please feel free to leave your own comments.
Our classroom of second graders have begun a voyage of looking at the world beyond our own community. In the classroom we have discussed geography facts and looked closely at globes and maps. We have learned that the United States is part of the North America continent and that there are a total of seven continents. We have located and labeled the five major bodies of water on Earth and know we call them oceans.
Each day in the classroom we step beyond Acton, Massachusetts to discuss the “outside” world. A lot of our discussions involve looking at maps or globes and locating places. We have even learned to use Map Keys. As we continue to look beyond Acton, Massachusetts, we are researching the similarities and differences between world locations. We are exploring why we are similar and different and the things that impact these differences.
To help us investigate beyond Massachusetts we have made flat characters of ourselves. The characters are modeled after a boy named Stanley in Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Stanley is a nice, average boy with an ordinary life. Then one day a bulletin board falls on him and suddenly Stanley is as flat as a pancake. Stanley does amazing things while being flat. He gets rolled up, mailed, and flown like a kite. He even poses as a portrait in a museum and solves a mystery crime. It is a wonderfully creative story!
We used Stanley’s experiences being flat to help us at opening our classroom door to the world. The first thing we are did was make every person in the classroom flat. There was no bulletin board involved, instead we drew ourselves on 18” construction paper and color it based on how we each look! The Flat characters are traveling to host families and friends. Traveling the world is expensive so these “Flat Me” characters were cut out, laminated so that each could fit in individual envelopes, along with some “flat” luggage and other materials, and be mailed out. Mail is so much cheaper than plane, train, bus or boat fares.
After much preparation of obtaining locations to visit, researching the areas, packing our flat luggage, and preparing materials for our hosts, we are ready to travel.
We have boarded our envelopes and have sent 25 Flat Me characters out to explore the world. It is very exciting and we are planning this blog in assisting us in keeping track of our characters and their adventures.
Please feel free to blog with us about our travels and to make comments. Explore the blog archives and read about earlier Flat travelers.
We are so excited about all we are going to learn and about all that will be shared.
Flat Dean has arrived in Seattle! We are so excited to host him and are sad he has to go back. He has been a terrific house guest and endured many exciting times with us. We had a snow storm last week – and we had to miss an entire week of school! Flat Dean was very sad about that
This week we are back at school – and Flat Dean has been helping us around the house – going to Charlie’s Basketball games and Baseball practices. He even has been helping him with his piano practice – as well as playing with Charlie’s younger brother Blake.
We are getting ready to send Flat Dean home again – so many thanks for sending him along – we will miss him but keep up to date with all of his fun friends online!
Please do not miss the pictures! Just find the calendar to your right on this page and look below
to “Our Travels” and click on January 2012.
You will see Flat Nathan C in New Hampshire snow.
And Flat Mike spending a night in the forest with new friends.
And Flat Alexis visiting France in a big way.
And Flat Brendan seeing the sights in Hudson Valley, NY
Nice to see Flat Mike is just as active and brave as our Mike. Michael wanted me to tell you that sometimes we see deer in our backyard. He also thought Flat Mike’s adventure was very cool! Thanks, Lucia
Enjoy the weekend.
Flat Nathan C. aka Flat N is so happy it snowed. We have about 8 inches of fluffy white snow which caused school to be cancelled. Flat N learned that snow means a lot of work – shoveling and plowing our long steep driveway. We use a tractor with a bucket to move snow and a plow truck . Both have chains on the tires to make sure they do no slip and can get up the driveway.
One of the best parts of having Flat N, he is so helpful with all the chores of living in a rural area. We heat our house and make hot water with wood from our land. We saw the trees down and cut into different sizes depending which wood stove its for, and we burn a lot in the spring to make maple syrup. We collect sap from sugar maple trees in buckets and boil id down to yummy maple syrup. Flat N wants to come back and help do that, too. He sure likes maple syrup on his pancakes, do you?
Flat N is meeting many new friends including the police chief of our town. Our town has 2 Police Officers and Flat N might have the chance to ride in the police vehicle.
Flat N is looking forward to cross country skiing and sledding. We hope Nathan will visit this summer and ride in our kayak. Flat N knows all the lakes and ponds are frozen here. We might even go ice fishing.
Randy, Joanne, Emilie and Allie. Nathan’s friends in New Hampshire
Flat Brendan visits the tri-states….Being in the northeast makes it possible to travel easily from state to state. Last week I traveled through Connecticut and Massachusetts to visit Vermont, a state which is so proud of the products that are made right there. One of them is Cabot cheese and I had fun posing as a Cabot Cow! We also visited Woodstock, a famous old town, where Paul Revere made the church bell. This area was hard hit by Hurricane Irene, but they are rebuilding, and Woodstock was on Sixty Minutes in a report about how determined the people are to restore their beautiful area. I’ll send some pictures! Hugs to the Second Grade and to 3-D Brendan.
Well, Flat Mike joined the Sister Bay, Wisconsin volunteer Fire Department
the moment he arrived. There are 45 men and women to respond to a variety
of emergencies including fire calls, auto accidents and medical emergencies.
Sister Bay is a very popular tourist area on the bay side of Lake Michigan and
many people vacation there in the Summer.
Please click on the “Our Travels” January 2012 section to the right of this page
to see the pictures and detail plus Flat Andoni, and Flat Brendan.
So exciting to see Flat Mike at the Fire Department. We were also relieved that he was just testing out the ambulance! – Lucia
Thank you Lucia. Yes, Flat Mike is keeping us busy as we are sure you are also
kept busy.
Regards, Nancy and Tim
Hello 3D Andoni from Flat Andoni in Colorado with the Tekosis family!
I arrived last week but have been a bit nauseous since i got here because of the altitude… 9,007ft! I’m definitely not used to that, man!
The views are spectacular up here in the mountains, and the family are mostly friendly…
The 3 year old Johanneka thought i was scary when i arrived, but now she wants to hold me all the time and even makes me clap my hands (I’m trying to be a good guest and just go along with it!) Emmanuel, the 6 year old boy said he would make me some skis so i can go skiing with them tomorrow. I’m so excited!
Maximus, the 8 year old, wanted me to ride on their dog, Chilli- i thought this would be fun too, until i tried it! Now I’m a little worried cause he’s mentioned taking me para-gliding- I’ll try to stick with them and not blow away!
Zander, the baby, wants to grab me and chew on me (his drool is so gross man!) but Kathryn, the mom, always rescues me just in time, saying this is no way to treat a guest!
The two older kids in the family, Stavro and Mele haven’t hung out with me too much so far. I helped them assemble some Ikea furniture on Monday and they think I’m okay.
Wish you were here man. I’ll tell you more when i have more news!
From Flat Andoni
Hello Flat Andoni and the Tekosis Family! It sounds like you have had many adventures already. Thank you for the pictures and especially for taking Flat Andoni skiing. He has always wanted to try it
Thank you so much for hosting him.
Love, 3D Andoni and the rest of the Zervoglos Family
Good Morning to Mrs. Sonner’s class from Flat Brendan. The great thing about living in the Northeast is that you can get to many other states quickly. My host is visiting 3-D Brendan’s Mamie in Vermont. We went through Connecticut and Massachusetts to get here, and we also traveled into New Hampshire. I am sending a picture of me at L.L. Bean in West Lebanon NH, and today, we are planning to see Dartmouth University. Hugs to everyone there. I will be back online soon…xoxoxoxoxo, Flat Brendan
Diego flat box has arrived at the final destination in Brazil,the Camargo family are so happy about the project and having Flat Diego visiting.
Hi my name is Elizabeth or as Luca calls me Aunt Lizzy. We welcomed Flat Luca to our home in Louisville, Kentucky on Dec. 28th after returning from our travels to Massachusetts for the holidays. I’m excited to show him around and plan on visiting Church Hill downs, the Louisville slugger museum and try to get to Abraham Lincoln’s birth place here in KY!
Until then Flat Luca has enjoyed hanging out with our Newfoundland Charlie and taking him on walks! Hope everyone in Karen Sonner’s class had a nice holiday!!
Flat Nathan C. arrived in Center Sandwich New Hampshire. He is enjoying spending time near the base of the Ossipee Mountains, on LIttle Larcom. It is a ring dike volcano formation. Don’t worry the volcano is inactive.
He is disappointed that there is no snow so he has not been skiing or snowshoeing yet.He attended 6th grade with Allie at the Inter_lakes Elementary School in Meredith.It was a long bus ride over 30 minutes.
We welcomed Flat Mike from Mrs. Sonner’s into our home just before Christmas. He traveled 1247
miles from Acton, Ma to Ephraim, Wisconsin. So far he has visited our local Fire Station, the Milwaukee Airport, and a factory that makes generators for Facebook.
Flat Mike wonders should pictures be sent to a certain email address? How should he let his class
know what he is up to during the coming month?
Send your pictures to ksonner@mail.ab.mec.edu and I will post them on the blog.
Hi Nancy,
It sounds like Flat Mike has been very busy touring Ephraim. Thank you so much for hosting him in his travels. Hopefully, we will have a chance to meet soon.
Happy New Year,
Michael and Lucia (Flat Mike’s Mom)
Hi Lucia and Michael,
We are having fun with Flat Mike and it is a pleasure. We hope to meet all of you soon in our favorite part of the country.
Happy New Year!
Regards,
Nancy and Tim
Hello to 3-D Brendan from your Flat Brendan!
I am here in the beautiful Hudson Valley of the State of New York! Have already visited George Washington’s Headquarters. He really DID sleep here. He also started the Order of the Purple Heart and when they wanted to crown him King, he refused. I will send pictures.
Hugs to you and everyone in Karen Sonner’s Class!
What a great blog site.