A Visit From Flat Stanley Author Josh Greenhut With Our New Friends In Virginia...And A Few Flat Friends Too!

Today we had some very special and fun visitors in our library....Our first connection for the new year.

Before the holidays we kicked off the third graders "Flat Friend Project" by sending off their friends to people around the world.  As they wait for the friends to come back in the mail, we decided to add a new piece to the project this year.
                          
They all have a "Flat Twin" they have been taking on adventures throughout the holiday.  We made a copy of each friend before they were sent in this mail.  This will give them a lot of great things to write and talk about as we connect with our new friends in Shannon Hyman's students from Kaechele Elementary School in Virginia.

Our two schools will be connecting throughout the second semester as their flat twins travel in Iowa, Virginia, between our schools, and other places the kids take them.  We will be integrating creative writing, collaborative projects, technology, and other subjects throughout this time too.  

You can read all about the kick off at this post, Excited To Introduce The Third Graders To Their "Flat Twin Project" Just In Time For The Holidays. Also, check out the Animoto above to see one of our third grade teachers, Laci Corsaut, and I's flat twin take some awesome adventures.

So today we took our adventure one step further by connecting with Shannon's 2nd graders in Virginia and author Josh Greenhut, who is an author for the Flat Stanley's World Wide Adventures books.

What a super way to kick off the year and our connection with these amazing second graders and their teachers!

Josh told us all about how the Flat Stanley books started with author, Jeff Brown.

In fact, the first Flat Stanley was published in 1964.  This year is the 50th anniversary of Flat Stanley.

Now, Jeff is writing books where Flat Stanley goes on all kinds of different adventures throughout the world in a series called Flat Stanley's World Wide Adventures. 

Today we added several more of these titles to our library....just in time for our third graders to check them out as they take their flat twins on adventures throughout their lives too.

Our kids in Virginia and Iowa then took turns asking Jeff questions....We loved the conversation and learned so much about Flat Stanley, writing, and Josh himself.

A few of our little friends even ran down to the classrooms to get their flat twins to share with Josh and their new friends in Virginia.  

I just love how Carter, Mateo, and our other third graders created friends that reflect their personality and style. 

At the end of our Skype with Josh, he told the kids if they created cards for Flat Stanley's birthday he would make sure they got to the right place.

That is all our third graders needed to hear. By the time they came to library in the afternoon, they were all ready to do a little creating.

I just loved seeing how they were sharing the Flat Stanley books and working with each other to spread excitement for Josh's visit and Flat Stanley's anniversary.

Thank you Josh and Shannon for connecting with all of us in Van Meter today.  

We can't wait to see where our adventures will take us next!