Students from opposite sides of life united by Flat Stanley

YOUNGSTOWN

One group hails from an urban school while the other is rural. One is in second grade and the other in sixth and one is mostly black while the other, mostly white.

They were united through a flat little guy.

Second-graders at Horizon Science Academy completed a Flat Stanley project Friday and got to meet some Leetonia sixth-graders who participated in the project.

Flat Stanley is a book by author Jeff Brown about a boy who becomes flat after a bulletin board above his bed falls on him while he’s sleeping.

“Other than being flat, he’s fine,” said Vickie Allison, a Horizon Science Academy second-grade teacher.

Flat Stanley soon discovers the advantages of his new dimension: he can slip under doors and into sidewalk grates, and slide into an envelope to visit people who live far away.

The book turned into a project for students across the country and beyond. Horizon students decorated one side of several different Flat Stanley cutouts and sent them to family and friends in other states.

Recipients decorated the other side of the cutout and photographed Flat Stanley in different locales and activities and sent the photos back to Horizon Science Academy.

“He went to far-away places,” said Andriana Williams, 7, who sent her Flat Stanleys to Seattle and Alabama.

The Horizon Science Academy second-grader pointed on a poster board explaining her Flat Stanleys’ travels. They visited Civil Rights sites in Birmingham and the field where the Seattle Seahawks play.

She said it was fun and the best part was making the Flat Stanleys.

“They did one side and we did the other side,” she said.

Read more about the project in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.

Read more about the project in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.