Flat Andrew Goes to Massachusetts!

The Chiu Family was happy to have Flat Andrew visit us in Somerville, Massachusetts, a town just a few miles north of  Boston.  Owen knew that Flat Stanley was once made un-flat with a bicycle pump.  Owen tried it with Flat Andrew, but it didn’t work!

Instead, Nora and Addie made flat-selves so Flat Andrew would have some Flat Friends to play with.

Flat Andrew also had fun playing with un-flat Addie while Owen and Nora were at school.

Flat Andrew got to see Owen and Nora at the Benjamin G. Brown Elementary School, which has been a school for over 100 years.  Nora is in 1^st grade, and Owen is in 3^rd.

It was a warm day, so we thought Flat Andrew would enjoy seeing the Atlantic Ocean.  We went to Revere Beach and hunted for seashells, but it was so windy, we couldn’t stay to build a sandcastle.

Instead, we went back home and made one in the sandbox.

Our town Somerville has a historic sight, the “Powderhouse”, which is just a block away from our house.  It was built as a windmill in 1703, and was used to store gunpowder during the American Revolution.  Addie showed Flat Andrew some of the historic markings around the park.  We think it is very funny that the building was used as a pickle factory in the 1870’s.

 

Flat Andrew’s last adventure was joining Owen, Nora and Addie at marching band practice for the “Underage Marching Menace”…

It is really fun.  Owen even made his own instrument, a “Kazoomaphone”.  Nora plays the tambourine, and Addie plays a drum made from a coffee can.  We will probably perform at a big music festival called HONK! That happens in Somerville in October.

Here is the band website  http://kids-street-band.tumblr.com/ 

and here is a video of Flat Andrew marching (there are usually a few more kids in the band!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pvtW4rHpV4&feature=youtu.be

We hope Flat Andrew enjoyed his visit to Somerville, MA, and we hope un-flat Andrew and his family will visit us some day!

Flat Andrew Goes to another city in Michigan!

Hello to Room 240!

We are so excited - Flat Andrew arrived in the mail today to visit us in Olivet, Michigan!  We can't wait to show him around!

Olivet is a small town in the southern part of Michigan.  There are only about 2,000 residents in Olivet, but there are actually more people here because we have a lot of college students that go to Olivet College!  This is a famous school in Michigan because it was the first college that allowed women and African-American students to attend the same classes as other students.  When the college was started in 1844 this wasn't allowed at other schools.  It's hard for us to think that there was a time when only boys could go to college!

Flat Andrew spent a little time on the Internet tonight, visiting his many friends on your class website!  You can see the picture of him chatting with Flat Lucy in Ireland!  You have a very fun project and a great blog!

We'll write again soon!

- Kirsten Almo & kids (Zoe - age 11, Mimi - age 10)

PS.  I've been friends with the real Andrew's mom since we were Andrew's age!

Flat Lucy C. Goes to Ireland!

Flat Lucy visited Ireland! She was hosted by Lucy C.'s Aunt Eileen and Uncle Amal. Eileen and Amal showed Flat Lucy around their town of Rosslare Strand, Ireland which is a small village located at the southeast corner of Ireland and on the coast of the Irish Sea ...

Flat Lucy arrives in Rosslare Strand, Ireland.  She noticed that the place signs for roads and towns in Ireland are written in both Irish and English. 

First, Flat Lucy visited Tintern Abbey, founded in the year 1200.  The Abbey has a tower, chapel, and castle-like buildings.  Hundreds of years ago, the Abbey was home to monks.  Today, tourists like to go and see the grounds. 

Flat Lucy especially liked looking out from one of the Tower windows at Tintern Abbey.  It was a sunny day in Ireland. 

Since Rosslare Strand is located on the Irish Sea, Flat Lucy got to travel on a large Ferry Boat starting from Rosslare Harbor ….

Flat Lucy took a three hour Ferry Boat ride across the Irish Sea …. 

To Fishguard, England … then drove with Eileen to the English countryside and saw lots of fields dotted with sheep one sunny morning.

When Flat Lucy returned to Ireland, she had a day at the beach in Rosslare Strand, enjoying the waves. 

Finally, before departing to go home to the U.S., Flat Lucy visited Wexford Town, Ireland.  The nearest “big” city from Rosslare Strand village!

Thanks for visiting us Flat Lucy! We hope you had fun in Ireland.

Flat Emmett in Washington D.C.!

Flat Emmett visited Washington D.C.  He was hosted by one of Ms. Schlee's friends, who is also a photographer.  Andrea showed Flat Emmett some of the sights of the district, while her friend Parker took the photos.  First, they visited the Capitol Building.

Luckily, the cherry blossoms were in bloom - Washington D.C. is famous for these trees along the National Mall.

Next, they visited the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum.  They saw an exhibit with lots of neon lights called "Suprasensorial."

Finally, they saw the Lincoln Memorial.

Flat Claire Sees More of Norway!

Flat Claire wanted to see more of Norway so I tok her on a buisnesstrip to travel my country. The first stop was in a city west in Norway called Stavanger, alot of the people living in Stavanger work on the oil-platforms out in the North Sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavanger

The next stop on the buisness trip was Bergen a bit more north in Norway then Stavanger.  I am sorry that the picture is so dark but we had to work late.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen

The next stop on the trip was in Trondheim and the picture is taken outside Nidarosdomen the church where the princess of Norway got married in 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidarosdomen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trondheim

The last stop on the trip was in the city Tromso far north in Norway 69 degrees north. The last letter in the name of the city is actually not an o but a different letter in our alphabet -  an o with a line though it from top right down to the left. We have three more letters then you do: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/norwegian.htm.  Maybe you can try to write them in class? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromsø

Flat Lynval Goes to Idaho!

Flat Lynval took a trip to Idaho - he got to visit a friend of Ms. Schlee's.

This picture is taken at Simplot's Hill - J.R. Simplot, now deceased, was one of the richest men in Idaho who made his fortune as a potato tycoon :) I used to live on the hill behind his house (which is on top of the hill in the photo) and on Halloween, he would give out silver dollars to the first 100 or so kids who came trick-or-treating to his house. I have a couple of them still.

Flat Lynval also visited the state capitol in Boise. 

This is a view of downtown Boise from the Train Depot (a Boise landmark seen in the following two pictures).

Flat Naren Goes to India!

Theese pictures are of Flat Naren's recent trip to India with his Aji and Abba (Grandma and Grandpa) this past February.  He visited the city of Mumbai, where his Aji was born, and the city of Pandharpur, where his Abba was born. 

Mumbai is the largest city in India with a population of over 15 million people.  It is also the financial and fashion capital of India and is where Bollywood is located.  A simple comparison is to think of New York and Los Angles combined into one big city.  That would be Mumbai. 

This is his Aji at the Gateway of India.  The Gateway of India is located on the waterfront was built in 1924 for King George V and Queen Mary.  Also, the last British troops to leave India passed through this gate in 1948. 

Next Flat Naren went to the Taj Hotel in Mumbai.  Many famous people have stayed here such as The Beatles, The Duke of Edinburgh, President Obama, and Oprah Winfrey. 

Next,  Flat Naren visited the Arabian Sea.  You can see the fishing boats and other sail boats in the water.  The Arabian sea connects to the Indian Ocean and if you look really hard you could probably see Africa.  (Just kidding) 

This is a picture of Flat Naren at a statue of Shivaji Bhosle.  Shivaji led the resistance to free the Marathi people from Sultanate of Bijapur.  He helped create the Marathi kingdom which eventually led to the state of Maharashtra from which his Aji and Abba are from. 

Flat Naren thought it would be good to take a rest from his long journey.  India is over 9000 miles away and it takes nearly a whole day to get there by plane.  Imagine what it was like before planes and people had to use boats to travel to far away places like India. 

These pictures are of Flat Naren's visit to the Apte school.  This school is in the city of Pandharpur, the hometown of Flat Naren's Abba (Grandpa).   It is the school that Abba went to when he was the same age as Flat Naren.  Next year the school will be celebrating it's 100 year anniversary. 

Finally, this photo is Flat Naren standing on the head of an elephant at the entrance of Narsinghpur Temple that is over 500 years old.  It is the Temple that Naren's great great great grandfather used to go to worship. 

Flat Andrew Leaves Michigan...

The Smith family in Hartland, Michigan has said good-bye to Flat Andrew.  The family was sad to see Flat Andrew leave. 

They had so much fun showing him around Michigan they wanted to keep him for a few more weeks, but Flat Andrew was ready for a new state. 

He slipped into an envelope and headed east to Boston, Massachussets. 

Goodbye Flat Andrew!  We will miss you and hope you will come back to Michigan with the real Andrew this summer. 

Flat Evie Goes to Pennsylvania!

We took Flat Evie on a little tour of the Philadelphia, Pennslyvania area...love the project idea and hope you get to see sights all over the world!!

Flat Evie went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania with the Amish (a group of people who do not use electricity or cars - they still use horses and buggies to get around).

She also saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (It was in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall that George Washington was appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. In the same room the design of the American flag was agreed upon in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and the U. S. Constitution was drafted in 1787.)

She also visited the top of the Comcast center (which is the tallest building in Pennsylvania, and the 15th tallest in the United States). 

Finally, she got to see a statue of the world-famous Phillie Phanatic, who appears at all of the Philadelphia Phillies home games!