Here is my attempt at providing a glimpse into our adventures with Before Five in a Row (B4FIAR) when we “rowed” Katy No-Pocket! We do so much and it was so long ago (Sept 2014!!!) I’m having a hard time getting it all down but hopefully these photos will help! This is not the first book that we rowed I’ll be going back and gradually adding each book as I get time!
We did as the B4FIAR manual said and read the story each day and then did either bible, math, language arts, science, social studies (that’s what they call it) and art.
Here are my planing sheets:
I chose to set up our cube shelves with ‘tray activities’ to spark conversations with the kids about the book and related themes for them to have access to all week.
Some ideas were straight out of the book and others were a stretch to relate but I tried to use as many items from home and our library as possible! The puppet, 1 of the puzzles and the books were from the library the rest we either had, I found on the internet or I just made it up (like the tool matching)! The only bought item was the Kangaroo and joey which we got for reduced for $5 (long story short I looked and agonised over buying it for ages because it was $25 or there about’s. When I finally decided to make the purchase I noticed some of the stitching was coming undone and when I pointed it out they dropped to price to $5! I was ecstatic!!!!!! More excited than the kids really!)
Full Set up of our Katy No-Pocket themed shelvesClose up of shelves: Top shelf L-R: Kangaroo pattern blocks sheet tray, katy no-pocket colouring page, kangaroo lacing Bottom shelf L-R: Tool outline matching, kangaroo themed books and Noah’s ark puzzle (it had kangaroos on it!)Top shelf: Kangaroo puppet, map of Australia puzzle & Kangaroo with joey (I Love this toy)
Next shelf: Kangaroo Montessori matching cards, Kangaroo free play diorama and Australian Animal puzzleMaster 4 playing with the mother and joeyFor Art on the last day (Friday) we all painted 2 different Aboriginal Kangaroo dot painting pictures! The kids and I had lots of fun doing it! (Yes I also painted some!)
Kids painting their Kangaroo Aboriginal Dot PaintingUsing our Aboriginal Art Books to copy designs for our kangaroo dot paintingMiss 22 months paintingMaster 3 paintingMaster 5 paintingHere is our finished work from the week:
Planning sheet to get all ideas, books, crafts, activities out of my head and down on paperWeek at a Glance planning page this is just the back of the planning page above which you can write down what youre doing each day.
Pinterest – I have a board for every Five in a Row book there is! It took forever to organise but it truly is a time saver because when I want to plan a book to row I go to that board and just look at all the ideas I have pinned previously. Here is my ‘Katy No-Pocket’ Pinterest board to give you an idea.
Here are the items I use to store my planned ‘rows’ ready to go:
Clear plastic wallet
Clear plastic wallet to store planning sheet and all other worksheets etc that are needed for the week. I also use this after we’ve rowed a book to keep any non-consumables and the completed planning sheet so I can reuse with the next child.
Suspension file box
Suspension file plastic store box to store each plastic wallet and extra items that wont fit inside the wallet.
6 Drawer Trolley
6 Drawer Trolley to organise each days worksheets and books ready to be used on the day they are needed
Here is how we keep our completed work:
3-ring Lever Arch File
Large file to store all completed work. I also print out the photos I’ve taken and put them in this file to help us remember all the fun we had.
Plastic sleeves
Plastic sleeves to store the kids work. Its best to use a 3-ring file as the weight of the paperwork can get very heavy.
How I plan:
First I gather everything I need
I gather the following items to organise each row: B4FIAR manual, Picture book we are rowing, iPad, Worksheets I’ve printed, Planning Sheet with clipboard & pen.
PICTURE BOOK
I’ll read the book to get an idea of the story and themes it covers. They are all such beautiful precious books that the kids and I love.
BEFORE FIVE IN A ROW MANUAL
Basically I open the manual and write down all the activities I’d like to do on my planning sheet.
IPAD
I use the iPad to search my Pinterest related board and write down ideas from here, printing anything I haven’t already done. It’s also great for reserving any books I want to get from the library so they’ll be ready for me to collect before we start.
WORKSHEETS/PRINTABLES
At the start of the school year I printed, cutout and laminated all worksheets/printables I wanted to use for all the books we were going to row which has saved me a heap of time each time I plan a row.
Lots of Printables/Worksheets can be found on the following websites:
All the ideas I write in the planning sheet side are then transferred to the Week-at-Glance side according to what I’d like to cover each day eg.
Monday – Bible
Tuesday – Math
Wednesday – Language Arts
Thursday – Science/Geography
Friday – Art/Cooking
It’s then a matter of just slipping each day’s printables into my 6-drawer trolley along with any additional library books or activities we will do and I’m set for the week.
So that’s how I plan and organise our ‘rows’ hope it’s been helpful.
Feel free to ask any questions if you’d like more information or I’ve missed something.
I chose to set up our cube shelves with ‘tray activities’ to spark conversations with the kids about the book and related themes for them to have access to all week.
Homeschool Ramblings 