Flat Stanley Opens World Up to Third Graders

Flat Stanley Opens World up to Third Graders
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I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Not many third graders have had the opportunity to visit and experience many foreign countries, but thanks to a wheat farmer and a storybook character, one Ritzville third grade class knows more about six South East Asia countries.
Washington Grain Commissioner and wheat grower Mike Miller, who participated on a recent South East Asia Crop Quality Tour, took along Flat Stanley, a story book character who travels the world, and sent photos of Flat Stanley experiencing the different cultures much to the delight of the third grade class.

Miller: “Our group really embraced this conception and Stanley just became this rock star. He become his own cult hero. We would use Stanley one, when we entered a country, we would put him up with the welcome to Thailand or welcome to Philippines sign, and then I’d send them back immediately being a day ahead. Then when the teacher show up the next morning, up would come Stanley, here is Stanley. I took pictures on the airplane where they could follow us on a map. What we Originally intended was for me to send one or two photos back a day of the the culture. It turned into that we were using Stanley to actually interact with these people we there to visit and it really became a great avenue to open the gates for conversation.”

While on the trip, Flat Stanley attended four weddings and a graduation. Miller shared after his trip, the third grade class gave a presentation to him on what they learned from Flat Stanley’s trip through Asia.