How Five in a Row Works

How Does Five in a Row Work?

Five in a Row was created to bring excitement and fun to learning and to enrich children’s lives through wonderful children’s literature. The lesson plans are simple in concept, but rich in results. Read the chosen book in its entirety to your child each day for a week. After each reading, choose a lesson to share with your student, and watch their world expand as you begin to show them facets of the story they would never have recognized without your purposeful guidance. As a teacher of this material, you will find that you become excited and interested in a variety of subjects too. You’ll rediscover the joy of learning and you’ll build a special bond between you and your student as the two of you go on a learning adventure together.

Five in a Row will help you teach Social Studies, Language Arts, Art, Applied Math, and Science using outstanding children’s literature as the basis for each weekly unit study. Lessons are designed for children ages 5 through 12+ and include discussion guides and questions, teacher answers, hands-on activities, activity pages, and suggestions for further study.

Do the picture books or chapter books come with the manuals?
The books you'll read do not come with the manuals. You can get them through your local public library for free, or you can purchase them new or used online or anywhere books are sold.
Can my 2 or 3-year-old join in with the older children?
Of course! But you’ll find that Before Five in a Row is aimed directly at their learning readiness needs and provides a very special 10-20 minutes a few times a week that is “their time” just like their big brother or big sister.
Why is it called Five in a Row?
The name refers to the story being read aloud to your child for five consecutive days before doing the lessons. (This applies to the picture books found from More Before through Volume 5.)

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Not sure where to start?

If you’re wondering which Five in a Row curriculum manual is the right place for you to begin, you can reference the graphic below to see at a glance the appropriate age ranges for each volume. It is important to remember, though, that Five in a Row is a “low floor/high ceiling” curriculum and most of the lessons can be adapted (with additional effort) to suit nearly any age or learning level. To read more about the “low floor/high ceiling” philosophy, click here.

If you have multiple ages and are trying to decide which manuals to use, you have a couple of choices. You may choose to keep them together; teaching your oldest child and letting the younger children tag along can work well if there’s not a large age gap. Often, teaching from multiple manuals that are age-appropriate is actually easier for you (less work, less planning) than trying to adapt lessons from one manual to fit much older or younger children.

What makes Five in a Row Different?

This curriculum is intended to be extremely flexible, allowing you the option to do any combination of the lessons for each story. You may elect to skip over certain activities which do not fit the needs of your student and you may place additional emphasis on other ones which seem appropriate. You will find more lessons than you can use in a week, so enjoy customizing the school day for your student and know that you can always revisit books in the future, and utilize lessons you didn't teach the first time through.

You can adjust school time to fit your needs as well. By using only one lesson element each day, you can work through Five in a Row in as little as 30 minutes daily, including the time to read the book. If you choose to use all of the lessons, field trips and follow-up exercises, you could easily spend several hours daily. Use Five in a Row however it best suits your needs and the needs of your student. Five in a Row is designed to help you teach your children to love learning!

Interest-based, discussion-based, and play-based learning techniques are utilized throughout Five in a Row to capture your student’s attention and increase retention of the material. This makes Five in a Row ideal for all learning styles! For younger children, play-based learning might occur through dramatic reenactment, hands-on building, or the activity sheets provided with each lesson. In addition to the discussion-based lessons, older students will enjoy virtual tours, scavenger hunts, and vocabulary crossword puzzles—these are just some of the ways Five in a Row inspires learning and retention.

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More Ways to Use Five in a Row with Multiple Ages at Once

Using multiple Five in a Row teacher's manuals that have lessons written specifically for your child's age and abilities is often easier for the parent/teacher. Using the Five in a Row Mini Units would be another way to easily teach multiple ages as they have lessons written specifically for ages 2-12+ included in each one.

Some families prefer to teach multiple ages together using only one FIAR manual. This chart will give you ideas for how to use units from Five in a Row volumes 1-3 with multiple children that are younger, older, or are delayed or advanced learners.

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Try a FREE SAMPLE of Five in a Row

The FREE SAMPLE contains over 80 pages including 5 complete, literature-based, unit studies (with activity pages) from all levels of Five in a Row & Before Five in a Row (ages 2-12+) as well as book lists for each volume to help you decide which is the best fit for you and your student(s).

FREE SAMPLE