Five in a Row

I used FIAR with my oldest son starting at 2 yrs old. I was so eager to start "school" that I began researching programs on the internet. FIAR fit the bill because it was an actual curriculum (which fulfilled my planning needs :) )but it didn't push little ones too hard.

For those who aren't familiar with Five in a Row http://www.fiarhq.com/ it takes a story book and plans lessons around that book. You read the book five days in a row and each day there is a different lesson. For the younger set (2-4) there is Before Five in a Row. The activites vary by book but normally each book includes a language arts, science, art, math, and social studies lesson. You buy the manual that has the lessons in it then you either buy or borrow the story books.

This year I will start using FIAR with my youngest son (we did a little bit from B4FIAR last year). I really want my Turtle Toes to get to enjoy all of the story books that Turkey Lips and I enjoyed when he went through it. So how am I going to make that happen?

• I have already planned out which book we will use for each week of the school yearhttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyo9Qgo_Q_3ADSLAOBXl8AVd26TRL7KY7jtMsxtzM_zcEBYiWoksHORZdZMMH2xh5bgxbPO8yi-jbp-V9-wiugs5Eh9fq3DKlotVcNjAdi7_RL1BLDc1THbWKneK33JCBOvv43OSOAFOkj/s1600-h/2007-2008+Five+in+a+Row+Schedule2.jpg . I can certainly switch things around during the year if I want, but I find for me it saves alot of time to choose the books ahead of time. If I don't pick them ahead of time I will find myself on Sunday night thumbing through my FIAR manuals trying to decide what book to choose when I could be picking out actual lessons.
• I have blocked off 30 min for FIAR in our school day. While Turtle Toes and I are working on FIAR Turkey lips has independent work. We will see how that goes. I have a feeling it will be a struggle for Turkey Lips to hear the stories and not take part. If that is the case then he can join us but he will need to find another time to get his indpendent work done.
• At the beginning of each month I will look at the lessons for each book I have chosen and plan out which ones we will do and make a list of any supplies we will need. Because we will only have four days for FIAR I will only choose four things to do. Let me repeat that to myself...because we only have four days I will only choose four lessons :).
• There are a couple of things that I want to do with each book that aren't included in the FIAR maual.

1. narration - have Turtle Toes give me a brief narration of the book at the end of the week. This won't be anything formal at first. If he does well with it towards the end of the year I will start writing it out for him. I just want to get him in the habit or narrations.

2. Illusration - I want him to draw a picture about the book we have read. When I did this with my oldest son I had him do his picture right on a tabbed divider (white) so that it was the first page in his notebook for that book.

3. Map - This will be simple. I only want him to label the things that pertain to the story. For example. In the book "The Story About Ping" he would have a map of China and label the Yangtze river. This will be done during our circle time first thing in the morning.

4. Flag - I might also have him color a map of the country or state that the book takes place in.

5. The rest of the lessons/activities will be take straight from the manuals.

• Turtle Toes will have a notebook to keep all of his FIAR papers in. We are also going to try and do 1 lapbook on one of the FIAR books a month.
• On our schedule TOG comes right after FIAR. I am thinking that Turtle Toes can be finishing up any FIAR work (map, flag, illustration) while we start reading our TOG books.
• I have a checklist that will go in Turtle Toes' notebook with the activities listed above plus the lessons I have picked from the maual. He will be able to check them off when we are done.

I think that is it. Thanks to 5wolfcubs for asking how we were going to implement FIAR because it made me sit down and really think it out. One other thing. This plan takes place in a perfect world....I don't live in a perfect world ;) So I am sure there will be times where it doesn't happen just like this.