Hiya, Kids! I'm Flat Stanley!

My husband's cousin's daughter (got that?) is in 2nd grade, and her class sent out Flat Stanleys all over the place a few weeks ago, including one to us!  I'm basically a Flat Stanley pro at this point, since I think I've gotten three others before from various cousins, so we were more then happy to take the little guy around and "show" him the sights.

(Read about the Flat Stanley project and the Flat Stanley book)

Here's what we sent back to Brooklyn and her class back in Oklahoma (isn't Stanley cute?!  Brooklyn made him!):

Dear Brooklyn,

Scott and Valerie were so surprised and excited to see Flat Stanley arrive in the mail!  What a treat to have a visitor.

We live in New York City, New York, which is a big, BIG city, with over 8 million people living here!  Can you believe that? 

The first thing we showed Flat Stanley was the BIG bridge we can see out our window.   It is called the George Washington Bridge, and it was named after the very first President of the United States.  You can take the bridge across the big river to visit New Jersey, a completely different state! 

Next we wanted to teach Flat Stanley how to get around town, because here in New York City there are so many people, we don’t have our own car!

Instead, we use things like the subway, which is an underground train!  You can ride one to wherever you want to go.  We showed Flat Stanley the subway map that shows him how to find his way, and then we waited for the next train to arrive.

Here it is!

Our first stop was Grand Central Station.  It is a giant train station, where people ride trains into New York City from all over the place!  Places like Connecticut and Massachusetts and New Jersey.  In Grand Central Station, there is a tall, painted ceiling – isn’t it pretty?

Then we decided to take a walk around the city a little bit to see the sights.

Flat Stanley really loved to see all the tall, tall buildings.  You have to look way, way up to see to the very tops of them!

Next, we showed Flat Stanley how to ride in a taxi cab.  A taxi is a yellow car that you can hire to drive you where you want to go.  First you have to wave to a driver so that he will come pick you up.

Then you get to sit in the backseat while the driver takes you wherever you want to go.  Can you believe that all the taxi cab drivers know how to get anywhere in the city?  They really know their way around!

We let Flat Stanley ask the driver to take us to Times Square.  This is where they drop the big ball at midnight on New Year’s Eve on TV – have you ever seen that?

Flat Stanley loved looking around at all the bright lights!

While Flat Stanley was visiting, we also took a trip to another city, Philadelphia.  We took Flat Stanley to see the Liberty Bell.  This bell is very old – so old that it rang on the very first Independence Day, all the way back in 1776!  75 years later, a big crack appeared in the bell, all the way down the side (can you see it?).  It doesn’t ring anymore, but it is a neat part of American history!

We were so glad that Brooklyn sent Flat Stanley to spend some time with us!  We enjoyed showing him all around New York City, and we even sent him home with a souvenir.  Thanks, Brooklyn!

Love,

Scott and Valerie