Flat Stanley visits Australia

So Stanley and I have just returned from our holiday (Rob came too!).  We spent nearly 2 weeks touring round south-eastern Australia in a little camper-van, and had a fantastic time.

Here's some snaps of Stanley on the trip...

We spent the first day in Melbourne with the lovely Sarah who showed us around.  Here's Stanley and me on the beach at St Kilda.

I'm sure Stanley would have loved the rollercoasters at Luna Park in St Kilda, but I'm far too much of a wuss for that!

We got a great view of Melbourne from atop the Shrine of Remembrance.

Leaving Melbourne, we drove West along the Great Ocean Road.  Here's Stanley posing in front of the Twelve Apostles.  What you can't see is the 300 baffled Japanese tourists standing behind me wondering what on earth I'm doing...!

The furthest point of our drive was Sydney, and Stanley certainly enjoyed seeing the sights here!

He narrowly missed a dip in the harbour itself actually, as it was pretty breezy on the ferry to Manly.  Sorry Stanley, I wouldn't have been diving in to save you!

A final farewell to our trusty van at the end of the trip.  Stanley had a great time, and was very relieved that despite the excess of exciting wildlife in Australia (we saw koalas, kangaroos and emus, to name but 3), there were no hungry monkeys around to torment him!

I can't wait to see where my class's Stanleys have headed off to this holiday...

Flat Stanley is off again!

Yes, it's that time of year again - after the holidays my class will begin their 'Weather Around the World' topic, we've been reading Flat Stanley in our Guided Reading sessions, and our very own Stanleys have been coloured, cut out and laminated. 

Their holiday homework was to get them mailed off to a friend or family member with the request that he be shown around where they live, and returned with photos, postcards, etc, to show the class!

I don't know about the children, but I'm super-excited to find out where they all go, and also to have the huge excitement of receiving some parcels from all around the world during next term.  Let's hope he has lots of adventures - but maybe none as traumatic as his visit to Brunei last year...?!

My class with their Stanleys on our non-uniform day last week.

My Stanley is coming on holiday with me now, but then will accompany me back to the UK when I go on my Maternity Leave later this term, from where I can mail him back to ISB. 

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Return of Flat Stanley

Look who's back!  Yes, after Polly's Flat Stanley suffered a very unfortunate injury on his visit to Brunei, another child has bravely entrusted his beloved Flat Stanley to my care!

This Stanley comes courtesy of the lovely Hayden, who was also in my class last year.  Hayden's Mum is a great photographer and creates the annual Lewknor School calendar which is sold to the parents, and she kindly put in a copy of the 2011 calendar for me, along with Flat Stanley.  I was really touched by this; how very kind.

Inevitably I have been super-careful with this Stanley - no monkeying around for us!  This sign at the supermarket seemed to sum it up very well...

Yes, we will!

However, we did have one very close shave...  Stanley was in my handbag which I had carelessly left unattended.  I looked across to see a monkey with his hand in it!?  My first thought was not for my wallet, or my phone, but that I would be mortified to have to tell yet another child that I had allowed their Flat Stanley to be attacked!  Thankfully the monkey was only after something to eat - he polished off a packet of sweets that was in the pocket of the bag:

Lucky escape Stanley!!  But not so lucky for the monkey... let's take a closer look at that packet:

In case that's a little small, they were sugar-free sweets and the packet says 'excessive consumption may induce laxative effects'.  Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!  That's what I call karma.

Anyway, Stanley's been to the beach with us,

and paddled in the sea.

He's been sightseeing at one of the city's huge mosques,

and visited Selirong Island - an island covered in amazing Mangrove swamps (reached by a rather scary hour-long boat trip.  Rather scary when there's a storm brewing anyway - we seriously thought the boat was in danger of capsizing...  another innovative way to damage poor Flat Stanley!)

He's made cupcakes with me - Funfetti of course:

 and helped with the supper preparation.

Of course, he came into school too, and was a great help with lots of our lessons!

Collecting data about the colours of Smarties to make frequency-tables and bar charts!

Looking at plants (and wildlife!) in the school grounds.

 

Finding seeds in various fruits (then eating the fruit of course!)

Very amusingly, and rather brilliantly I thought, the girls in the class decided that Stanley needed a new wardrobe!  Before long he had a school uniform, a PE kit, several sets of shorts/t-shirts, and a traditional Malay outfit, complete with sinjang (coloured fabric around the waist) and songkok (hat)!

Here's Stanley modelling his Malay clothing, alongside his school uniform and PE kit:

He also has a swimming costume (most kids here wear the long-legged, long-sleeve style to protect them from the sun) and, rather worryingly, a pair of what appear to be leopard-skin pants..!

Hmmm, interesting!  I'm sure Hayden will be very amused by Stanley's (flat) suitcase full of clothes. 

Stanley's off home tomorrow, complete with a diary full of photos, his new clothes, some sweets for the class to share and a few little presents for Hayden.

Safe journey Stanley!

Flat Stanley's Adventures in Brunei - Part 3

Yesterday I decided that Flat Stanley should see a little more of Brunei before he headed back to the UK.

He came down to central Bandar with me for a photoshoot in front of the mosque. 

This was about the only picture of him that I managed though, as I got distracted trying to get some more shots for the 26 Things project...  I'm nearly there and will post at the end of the month.

In the meantime, bye Stanley!  It's been wonderful having you here and I look forward to hearing about your return to the UK.

Flat Stanley's Adventures in Brunei - Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, Flat Stanley accompanied me into school last week.  I had an inkling that he might be paying us a visit sometime this term, so I had got the book out of the school library in anticipation.  I told the class that we had a very special visitor, but I wanted to read them a story first... when we got to the part about Stanley being put into an envelope the penny dropped and they all guessed who was here in Brunei.

They were excited really - but some of them have very serious 'photo faces' which they put on the moment I get my camera out!  I've noticed this phenomenon before with children, but some of this lot are particularly funny.

They soon got into the swing of things though, suggesting where Flat Stanley should be photographed in order to show Polly in England what our school is like:

Eating our snacks (at 9.40am...  we're hungry by then as teaching starts at 7.25!)

In the Hall at playtime.

Playing Snakes and Ladders!

Skipping (he's in her hand!)

In the sandpit.

By the swimming pool.

Ready for our swimming lesson.

By the recycling bins - we're going for the Green Flag Award, which Polly's school has already got.

Going to our Music lesson.

Joining the other KS2 classes for Friday Assembly (with me trying to ignore the funny looks I was getting from my colleagues!)

And finally, in the classroom with me (slightly blurry photo - it's very amusing watching a 7-year-old struggle with a big SLR camera!  But he did really well.)

The class were nearly as amused by Flat Stanley's monkey-related injury as I was!  They were very taken with the idea of me writing to Polly with all these photos, and some of them decided - with no prompting from me - to make little information posters about our school to put in with the letter.  How sweet!

The funniest thing was this morning though - we had a new girl join the class.  She's come from England, and I overheard one of the girls asking her "Do you know Polly?" 

Flat Stanley visits Brunei

Are you acquainted with Flat Stanley?  If you're a parent in North America I can pretty much guarantee that you have heard of him, and you've probably met him too.

Flat Stanley is the hero of a series children's books written by Jeff Brown.  Stanley Lambchop was just an ordinary boy until one night a bulletin board fell off his bedroom wall and squashed him.  Stanley was unhurt, but flat - half an inch thick.  After the initial understandable concern of his family, Stanley soon discovered that being flat had its advantages, and the books tell of Stanley's many adventures.

One of the benefits of Stanley's diminished size is that he can be posted to visit his friends (in a special envelope, along with a carton of milk and an egg-salad sandwich made with thin bread!), which is 'much less expensive than a train or an aeroplane ticket'.

This idea generated a huge Flat Stanley project in the USA and Canada, and it was something that caught my eye when I was living in Ontario...

So, when I was teaching in rural Oxfordshire earlier this year, I set up my own Flat Stanley project.  I read the book to my class (Year 2 and 3), then gave them all pictures of Stanley to colour.  I laminated them, and sent them home with covering letters as a homework project - send Stanley somewhere... anywhere... and let's see what happens. 

Well, I wouldn't ever have imagined getting such an incredible response!  Within weeks we were having Stanleys sent back to school from all over the UK, and all over the world - Australia, China, Hong Kong, Poland, France, to name but a few.  All the Stanleys came back with postcards of where he'd been, but many of the recipients had gone above and beyond the call of duty and sent Stanley back to our class laden with gifts (the clotted cream fudge from Cornwall was particularly popular!), and often with photo albums documenting his adventures.  We could just tell that everyone had had so much fun, and it was incredibly exciting (and educational) for the children (OK, and for me!)

When I left the UK to come to Brunei I gave all of my class a slip of paper with my new address on it, and told them that I would love to have Flat Stanley to stay with me.  It's taken a few months, but last week Stanley arrived, courtesy of the lovely Polly.

I was so excited!  I immediately started planning photo opportunities...  Imagine how delighted I was to wake up on Wednesday (which was a public holiday) to hear the monkeys leaping about on our roof.  "Perfect" I thought, a quintessentially Bruneian photo-shoot - Stanley with the monkeys.

This proved easier said than done, but I managed a few with the monkeys in the background.

Pretty soon one of the monkeys came to sit on the car, a place where they often like to play.  Even better!  This'll be a great photo...  Smile Stanley!!!

Now if you know the monkeys, I'm sure you can guess what happened next...

At this point I'm shaking with laughter and trying to snap away as Stanley becomes closely acquainted with this Bruneian resident...

But then things got a little nasty...

Oh crap!  Now I'm clapping my hands and shouting "NO!" at the monkey, who seemed utterly unperturbed by my distress.  Every time I took a step closer, he simply took a step back, with Stanley still in his mouth.  I had visions of him leaping up onto the roof with him, and poor Polly would never see Stanley again.

Suddenly I had a brainwave, the ignoring-bad-behaviour-strategy!  Gritting my teeth I turned my back and began to walk away.  Sure enough - and to my huge relief - the monkey dropped Stanley and leapt off into a nearby tree.  Phew!

Stanley had a lucky escape, although tragically he lost a leg as a result of the incident.  A quick trip to the Pendlenton ER soon had him sorted out though.  I'm hoping Polly will see the funny side - after all, she probably owns the only Flat Stanley in the world to have his leg chewed off by a monkey!

We took Stanley to the Yacht Club to soothe his shattered nerves.  Nothing like a sunbathe by the sea to help one recuperate.

We retreated to the shade of the palm trees when it got too hot.

We then took Stanley out for lunch.  No expense spared for our special guest - we had a $1 lunch at one of the food stalls in Serasa!

It was genuinely delicious though - especially the rose-syrup/condensed milk/crushed ice ABC drink (although Stanley was less than impressed with the grass-jelly and sweetcorn at the bottom of the cup.  Definitely an acquired taste).

On our return home Stanley helped me in the kitchen.  We made cookies and baked bread.

Stanley got to lick the beaters.

Later that week Stanley came to school with me...  but that's for another post!

I'm so pleased that Stanley survived the monkey attack with no mental scars, he seems as cheerful as ever...

To be continued.