Fun Things to do With Before Five in a Row


I have been reflecting on our Before Five in a Row experience and pondering what I want to carry over into our new journey with Five in a Row. To do this, I decided to highlight some of our favorite things we have done with B4FIAR. 
Learning Together With Five in a Row ~ how I organized and prepared.

(Links below pictures are to blog posts about the book we rowed.)

Fun Things to do With Before Five in a Row:

Read the Story

Read the story often and let your children supply missing words and finish sentences. Talk about what you see in the illustrations and what is happening in the book. Relate the story to real life experiences. Delight in the story with your child. 

Reading The Runaway Bunny

Create a Memory ~ Do Something Special 
A bouquet with a red balloon . . . 
and a bowl full of mush for Good Night Moon
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? Picnic 

Make a Special Lunch

Mock-Tuna Schooners for My Blue Boat
Make a Special Treat
Moon Cheese Snack for Good Night Moon

Monkey Pops for Caps for Sale


Let Your Little Ones Cook Something
Making Thick, Oozy, Chocolate {Mud} Pudding for  We're Going on a Bear Hunt
Go on a Field Trip


Trolly ride for The Big Green Pocketbook
A walk in the snow like Peter in The Snowy Day.

Do a Hands on Activity
Yellow ball prints for Yellow Ball
Encourage Pretend Play

Being a puppy for Angus Lost
Create An Art Project
Painting clouds for I Am an Artist ~ Clouds

Make a Lap Book 
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
Do a Printable Activity 
If ~Then for The Runaway Bunny
Do a Note-booking Page
Learning About Feelings With Corduroy

Make a Collage 
Fruits or Vegetables? Collage for The Carrot Seed

Make a Sensory Tub 
Edible Cloud Formations for I Am an Artist
Grow Something
Growing bean seeds for The Carrot Seed. We also grew carrots! 

Catch Something
Catching frogs at the pond for Play With Me
Raise an Animal Friend
We raised a Peking duck for The Story About Ping

Visit an Animal Friend

Visiting a bunny friend for The ABC Bunny

Offer "Go-Along" Books


Do a Narration and Illustration
Using Draw-Write-Now to illustrate his Katy-No-Pocket narration. 
Texture painting for Blueberries for Sal narration.
Use the Before Five in a Row manual and the story itself as a source of inspiration, and with all your doing, remember to: Take Photos and Document the Memories You Make!

Now that we've rowed a few books, I have a good idea what things we hope to do with each Five in a Row book we row!

15 comments

  1. As a beginner B4FIAR & FIAR user this was so wonderful for me to see, thank you for the time spent reviewing your B4FIAR year. Blessings, Renelle 

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  2. Wow, you did so much!  Were all or most of these activities included in the BFIAR book? 

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  3.  Thank YOU! What a beautiful post! How fun it was to do B4 FIAR in your house.  I love the idea of rowing other books. We have been doing the same thing. Recently we did that with some Olivia books.  I think once kids get used to approaching literature that way, they see the opportunities everywhere.  

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  4. So many great ideas!! What a fun year you've had- thanks so much for sharing!
    Jessica

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  5. lOVE this!!! Now I am even more excited about doing Before again with my little ones. First up is Green Pocketbook in June... Mike saw a bus and started asking about going on a ride again! Such fun memories. I'm thinking about copying your style of notebooking with sheet protectors and a binder. Quick question... Did you keep a separate book for each child, or did you put both their work into one?

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  6. Michelle, you have made such a loving investment into your children. May YHVH continue to bless your efforts!
    I know that the children are not only learning, but you are creating special family memories that they will cherish for life. 
     

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  7. Some were ~ for example, the concept of creating a memory came from
    the manual, but the idea for a Jesse Bear picnic to create a memory
    was my own. So some were from the manual or inspired by the manual,
    many were my own ideas, some I found on the FIAR forums or online, and
    all were inspired by the books we read! =)

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  8. Monica, I am working on a post that will answer that question!

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  9. I've linked back to you - thanks, Michelle, for a timely and very cute post!
    http://theusualmayhem.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-delightful-learning-fun-things-to.html

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  10. What a great post!  I am thinking of doing before five in a row with my son next year.  I love all of the ideas you did but I really love the love of learning and reading it creates!  Thanks for letting us share your BFIAR journey! 

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  11. This is an incredible assortment of activities! What did you do with the duck once it grew up? Were you able to keep it? It looks just like Ping! What did you dip the monkey pops in?

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  12. We gave Ping to their great grandma who raises ducks. Ping was great
    to have around! Ducks make great pets. He was like a mother hen to
    our chickens and they followed him around everywhere, but we wanted
    him to have access to a pond and other ducks. =)

    To make the monkey pops, I melted chocolate, whipping cream, and agave
    nectar together to make a chocolate syrup and then dipped the frozen
    bananas in the chocolate mixture and rolled the bananas in chocolate
    sprinkles. They were a hit with the kids!

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  13. I don't suppose you have a list of all those books you used?  I can't zoom in on your photo to decipher some of the ones I haven't seen in the BFIAR guide.  I'm working on finally putting together something for my middle two kiddos, so I've been yoinking a few of your ideas.  :)

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  14. Lanna, the books are in the drop down menu at the top of my blog under
    the heading Before Five in a Row. Each link is to the blog post of the
    book we rowed. Have fun!

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