Five in a Row is creating a new product, and we need your input!
Jane’s heart for Five in a Row has always been that it involves research in child-sized pieces, avoids mindless paperwork, and develops a love of learning and exploration. In order to avoid the mindless paperwork, many choose to adopt a purely conversational method: read a Five in a Row book, talk about the lesson and move on! While that method avoids mindless paperwork, offers information in child-sized pieces, it may not require enough of the child in the way of processing their thoughts and thinking critically about the topic at hand. It also leaves many families feeling like they aren’t “doing” enough, or that they do not have wonderful pages of their children’s work to show when using Five in a Row.
Five in a Row is built on quality literature. We take that literature and offer loads of topics to be explored further. Inherent in Five in a Row is the concept of open ended thoughts about a topic… a child following her interest sparked by a book about an elephant leading to a month long delight in all things elephants leading to a dream of an African safari and Oh! what other animals live on the savanna? Phew! Anyone else have a child like that? That kind of exploration doesn’t fit into a worksheet or lapbook very well. While there is a place for both, worksheets and lapbooks lead children to a correct answer that has been predetermined by the creator of each, and quite possibly even squelch their own interests on a topic. Yet the concept of notebooking gives children an opportunity to to share what they think is remarkable and memorable, encouraging independent, critical thought!
Jane has a section in the introduction of each manual (Volumes 1-4) that describes how to do Five in a Row using a notebooking method. You present the lessons, learn about the concepts together or individually, and then allow the child to share what he thinks is remarkable in the way that works best for him: drawing a picture, dictating to you his understanding, writing a story to explain her thoughts, rewriting a story to make it funny, writing short report, etc. What we’ve seen is that few Five in a Row families are using this method, but want paperwork to do. So they are turning to more traditional paperwork methods instead, which lack the opportunity for the child to critically think about all she is learning. We also realize that homeschool life is busy! And we may all just do better when something is made a little easier for us by being readily available.
So we’ve decided to fill in the gap!
We are creating a notebooking component to make it easy for the busy mom to do Five in a Row the way it was intended: to present information in bite sized pieces, avoid mindless paperwork, and develop a love of learning and exploration by providing a format for the child to share what is interesting to him! This digital component will be comprised of printable pages that can be applied to any Five in a Row unit study. Rather than a fill-in-the-blank worksheet on an elephant, for example, we might provide a mini-report form with prompts that could be used for any animal. Vocabulary pages, half blank and half lined pages, blank framed pages for drawing, blank life cycle charts, etc. You pick the page most applicable for your situation on any individual day, print it off and you’re ready to go!
Here’s where we need your input: what kind of pages would be most helpful to you? Think out of the box! If there has ever been a form you’ve ever wanted to complement your Five in a Row study, what is it? Comments are open… Go!
Winter books you don’t want to miss!
Animal Classification for Before Five in a Row would be great. For Five in a Row itself . . . a form for states/countries, blank flag, recipe template, Bible study page with room for a verse and notes. I’m sure I will think of more. This is a great idea!
A short biographical sketch sheet would be nice.
Biome, animal sheet with some classification info for those who do not use the index cards, possibly vocab for the same reason.
I love this concept….it reminds me very much of the Montessori approach to learning (journaling and notebooking). The lap booking approach has always seemed like an overwhelming task to me and more mom orientated than child. Today we made a covered wagon to go with the story Warm as Wool. Next week we are going to a sheep farm. My little girl is so excited! I will be thinking more about the notebook guides and check back in soon. Thanks for facilitating so much open ended fun in our school day!
Perfect idea!
I think all of the above is fantastic! Maybe copy work page as well? Makes me giddy thinking of the possibilities and I know that the perfectionist in me would be so relieved. Hurry! Do it!
Vocabulary sheets, color in maps, copywork sheets(already prepared and a master copywork sheet for those who want to choose their own sentences from the books) Narration pages for older students for written narrations.
All about the author; if I were the author I’d change…; kwl chart; compare two stories with similar components; parts of the story diagram
Off the top of my head . . .
1. World and US maps
2. Venn diagrams
3. chart for character sketches
4. biography pages
5. animal pages
6. vocab pages
7. some pages with just lines for journaling
8. draw and write pages
9. state pages (boxes for map, bird, flower, etc).
10. reading log
11. field trip report sheet
12. science observation sheet
13. copywork sheet
14. timeline pages
15. KWL graphic organizer
This is exactly what I never knew I needed!! 🙂 What a great way to enrich our FIAR experience. A “mini report” sheet for animals is just what I’ve been wanting this week. It would also be nice to have an author/illustrator biography sheet (we love learning where authors are from and when they lived).
What Marcy wrote.
I’ve been creating some notebooking pages to go with the art terms defined in the manuals. The bottom half of each page contains the term and a short definition — even shorter than presented in the manuals sometimes. The words are written on primary-sized handwriting lines with additional blank lines below for copywork. Then the top half of the page is blank for drawing or cutting-and-pasting. I have my son draw an example of the term or find pictures in a magazine that illustrate it.
We do vocabulary words on index cards but maybe some of the literary terms could be done on similar notebooking-style pages. After copying the definition the student could write an example or copy one from a story. Not as fun as drawing, but it would make a nice reference.
I ran across a freebie on CurrClick the other day that could fit in with FIAR as well: http://www.currclick.com/product/71299/Sharing-Your-Thoughts-About-You%3A-Emergent-Writing-for-the-Very-Young. The educator selects quality storybooks and then provides a worksheet for each book with a writing prompt and space to draw a picture. The questions in the freebie all relate to the child’s thoughts about him/herself. There are other collections that seem to focus on different themes. At any rate, I liked the idea and made a similar page for Stopping By Woods that we used this week. I wrote “When it snows, I like to” at the top of the page, inserted a few handwriting lines for a response, and then said “Draw a picture of yourself doing what you wrote about” with the rest of the page blank. I thought it would be a good activity and my son seemed to enjoy it as well. In general, he likes to “do” rather than just talk about the lesson for the day.
Yes! Great ideas, great comments so far. I would add book report forms for go-alongs.
Story map!
I am very excited that FIAR is undertaking this project! I would definitely purchase a notebook accessory to FIAR books. I will include the notebook type of material that I put together in our FIAR lessons. Right now I hunt down the paperwork myself but if it was provided by FIAR I would be thrilled with the help!
Science: Concrete definitions of scientific terms, classification of animals/plants, body systems ect. For example, when we talked about the boiling point of water in Another Celebrated Dancing Bear I had to look up the boiling, freezing point of water, write out a few scientific reasons for what the water molecules do and then draw a blank thermometer. I had the kids color in the thermometer and write the degrees. Having a ready notebook paper would be great! Also animal classification would be huge.
Social Studies: I print of a lot of color in maps and color in flags for each country we study. I also print off short culture reports of info for each country. The kids read new languages, write new language words. A place to write or draw a picture of what we ate, what we listened to ect while studding the country.
Language Arts: Definitely vocabulary words. A “glossary” of grammar terms would be great. A place for them to draw their favorite part of the story. Copywork of a sentence from the FIAR book that includes punctuation and great language. I would LOVE to have a poem to accompany each FIAR book ready for me. I do this already but I’m doing the searching and the copying. My kids memorize a new poem with every FIAR book and they keep a copy of the poem in their notebook. It would be great to have this ready to go!
Art: Medium terms and brief explanation for us teachers. I often have to look up explanations and insights into mediums such as ink, charcoal and print so that when we practice them I know how to do it. I’m just not familiar enough with them to explain them well.
Bible: Copywork of scripture. A page that helps them connect the FIAR story to the bible verse. I would love copies of hymns or worship songs to accompany what we are learning. Right now I research a hymn or worship song to sing with every FIAR book and include a copy of it in their notebook.
One of our favorite parts of FIAR was connecting the stories and story disks with a timeline. I would have loved to have had a set of story disks that included the author’s name, illustrator’s name, and copyright date. I made these using a set of the FIAR story disks years ago. My kids loved seeing that the book we were reading was “born” the same year Grandma was! 🙂 The book (story disk with info) was placed on the timeline next to Grandma.
These are the ones I thought of off the top of my head:
Bios
Animals
Habitat
Countries
Cities
States
Artist
Elements
This one might be tricky–but cycles like the water cycle, life cycle of an insect, etc.
Timeline
Decade–Several Beyond titles look at things like the ’30’s
Insect
Invention/ Inventor
Plant
Scientific Method
War (Civil War, WWI, WW2, American Revolution)
I would love to see more in the Beyond Five in a Row.
Maybe a page for Principles from Scripture that are found in this literary work. Perhaps a character page that has at the top: “Things to Emulate”…and at the bottom “Things to Avoid” and below each section a place for documenting practical ways to emulate or avoid.
I think your plan is a great one. I look forward to seeing the final products!
I don’t have in mind a specific kind of notebook page, BUT I really would love to see attention made to the spaces made for answers. I’m not always a fan of large handwriting lines on blank paper and I really dislike the tiny spaces for writing on lapbooking elements! So, just being mindful of the motor skills the children have in the age group you are targeting for the assignment would be great.
I would also love to see some forms specific to Jane’s assignments. If she says kids can try out a simile, then how about making a sheet with a simile example from the book at the top (say in a box so it stands out) and then giving some starter lines with like or as in the center of the line.
Pages you can add to for Choices an Author Can Make or Choices An Illustrator Can Make. Maybe one for a book where this is important then leave a blank space for the student to attempt to do something similar, but also have a page specifically for making a list like Jane recommends.
I am so excited about this!!! One thing I loved about the FnLs were that they went with each lesson. I could find other products that “could” go with the lessons, but I really liked the ones that corresponded with the lessons. I agree with what Heather said about tiny little spaces for writing. My son would get so frustrated that he couldn’t make his words fit into the squares of some of the lapbooks that we would do.
I think what I have been doing for years has been searching the internet for appropriate activities for notebooking pages that correspond to the acivities suggested by Jane for years. Finding country maps, flags, info about animals, biomes, creating copy work pages, finding info that is relevant to Australia that can be adapted to the particular story. So, for Make Way for Ducklings we found info on native Australian ducks. I have done the simile exercise that Heather spoke of. I have found numbers 1-10 translated in Spanish, food chains, beautiful Peter Rabbit worksheets…etc My boys still look at their FIAR notebooks as they bring back such happy memories.
Other curriculums with journals sometimes have to many irrelevant pages… read busy work that render the journal a waste of money. I find my self at this moment searching for pages for a particular curriculum that is very, very, good but I refuse to buy the journal as so much of it is useless IMO.
So, the journal pages need to be good:)
It would also be good for a tiny bit of flexibility that allows the activities to be adapted to users that are in other countries. Right at this minute I cant think how. I appreciate that FIAR is written in the US but there are many users that are adapting the activities to be “culturally relevant”.
This will be a fantastic project to help first times users get the hang of FIAR and for time poor mothers that dont want to trawl the internet looking for good material:) ( though some of us a richer for the experience!)
I wish you success!!
Meg.
I love the simplicity of Five in a Row. It has been perfect to do as much or as little as we feel we can do in a day, and I love that we aren’t relegated to worksheets and notebooks – we get great ideas on how to bring these wonderful books to life!! However, sometimes it’s nice to have some forms on paper. A country or state info sheet with a map, place for a flag, and areas to fill in cultural information would be wonderful. Another useful page would be a place to record science projects, as related to the book (by drawing for younger kids, writing for older). A field trip report sheet would also be fun, and maybe even a designated spot to glue a photo of our favorite project of the week and record our kids’ thoughts about it.
I’ve always thought links to videos would be awesome! For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0qGvC3vqaA to go along with “Very Last First Time”.
I too would like copy work models and animal classification guides. I like a great deal of what others said as well. Fantastic ideas! Thank you for always doing “more” FIAR!
I absolutely agree with others post above. I would use maps, draw and write sheets, copywork sheets, glossary or vocabulary dictionary, character sheets, narration page, mini timeline or personal map for story disks.
I love the idea of notebooking componets to accompany our already awesome FIAR lessons!! I’ve just recently started this process with my daughter in the 3rd grade and it is taking her to a different level of learning! So whatever amazing pages you come up with, we’ll be sure to use!! Everyone’s ideas are perfect and just what we need to make our FIAR lessons even better! Thank you for always thinking of how to help us homeschool our children in the very best ways!!
1. A story board page with 3-4 blocks for telling the story in pictures with a few printing lines underneath for dictation/narration of story.
2. Story map: characters, setting, narration (plot)
3. More math worksheets that are story specific. Math is concrete and could show through “life” events how to problem solve.
How about a generic “letter” page. I know at first I try to line up the books with a letter of the alphabet. Kids could use stickers, cut out magazine pictures and glue and paste on to the page etc. All things that have to do with the letter.
Also just wondering when you all think this might be available? 🙂
Hopefully within a month or so?? Can’t promise that though… it seems to be getting more involved each time we work on it! 🙂