I'm glad you asked about presentation. There is of course no "absolute" way to present Five in a Row lessons. Each family modifies their presentation to fit a wide variety of needs.

However, let me explain an effective way to use this curriculum and let's choose The Story About Ping for our example. There are usually several lessons for each subject category listed in your Five in a Row manual. In this demonstration I will not use every lesson listed but will select certain ones to illustrate the conversational teaching technique.

Whatever time of day you choose to do your Five in a Row lessons, begin by cuddling up on the sofa or big chair and saying: "Let's read a book together!" Then enjoy reading a good story (in this case The Story About Ping) all the way through.

Day One

On the first day, after you've read the story through together, you simply say conversationally, "Did you notice that our story today takes place in a foreign country? Did you see the boats, and the homes, and the clothes the people in the story are wearing? Do you remember the name of the country where Ping lived?" If your child doesn't remember, look in the story and find a line where it says that Ping lived in China. Ask your student if he knows where China is. If he does, then let him show you on a world map. If he doesn't, then help him find China and the Yangtze River on a world map. The story disk is a wonderful manipulative which your student can use to pinpoint the setting of the story and enjoy reviewing it on the map each of the five days that you cover The Story About Ping.

Now continue by asking your student if he has ever heard of people living on boats like the one in the story? Can he see the door and windows in the illustration of the wise-eyed boat? Some of the people of China live on their boats and fish for their dinner and eat whatever they catch. Ask your student if he would like to live on a boat and never know what he was going to have for dinner till he went fishing each day.

(Now, there are no right or wrong answers for this type of question. Some children will respond to this line of questioning with, "Cool! I'd love to live on a boat and fish for my dinner!" while others will say, "No way! Take me to MacDonald's!" This is one of the wonderful ways that Five in a Row works. This curriculum helps you get to know, really know your child. In the same way, as you share with him he will get to know you better, as well!)

Continue talking about the length of the Yangtze River and how the people of China live, using the facts listed in your manual. There is enough information in your manual to be sufficient for students through eight years old. Please note that you do not have to use all of the information on China if you have a younger child. For some four-year-olds, for instance, just learning that there is a place called China is a great start!

Proceed with as much information from the lessons as you think would be interesting and enjoyable for the student you are teaching. Though the information is enough, it is still fun to find a simple book or two on China at your library. The pictures are colorful and interesting. You could also use pictures about China from the World Book Encyclopedia.

There are many ideas in the "How to Use Five in a Row" section of your manual on how to help your student document what he has learned through making pages for his notebook, creating card files, etc. Some teachers are using the Dinah Zike Big Book of Books to learn how to create what they call lap books to collect and document the lessons learned each day in Five in a Row. Check the Five in a Row Archives or post on the Five in a Row message boards and ask for more information about this type of project.

This completes your first day of Five in a Row.

Day Two

The next day you would say, "We're going to read The Story About Ping again." For most students this is exactly what they want to do! If your child is hesitant, just say, "Today we're going to read the story and we will be learning how a story is written! Marjorie Flack who wrote The Story About Ping has done something special with the words and we're going to see if we can hear what she has done." Then you read the story again. (Your student is listening, but he will also be thinking, "Oh, Ping lives in China", and "no I wouldn't like to live on one of those boats" and "my, the Yangtze river sure is long--it's longer than a trip to my grandpa's"....all the things you talked about the day before will be running through his head. Reading the story again makes review easy, doesn't it?

On day two, you can ask your student if he can put the story disk on China. (You can vary the question each day: Where did Ping live? What was the name of the country where our story takes place? What was the name of the long river in China? Can you find it? Etc.

Since you have just re-read the story it is time to share how the author used a special sentence several times in the story. Read the sentence and ask your student if he can remember where else that sentence was used in the book? If he can't, just find the places in the story where the sentence is repeated and show your student how the author uses the same words in the middle of the story and again at the end. Explain that authors sometimes use an interesting sentence several times in a story to make it fun...we call that repetition (like repeating), etc. An author wouldn't want to use repetition too much, but a little repetition can make a story interesting.

Ask your student if he would like to write a short story (or you can work on it together) using an interesting sentence that can be found at the beginning of the paragraph and again at the end? This story can be very simple. The idea is to give your student a chance to try using repletion as the author in The Story About Ping did. For a young student, he may dictate to you his ideas for a story. You can write it out for him and let him do his own illustrations and then place his work in the Language Arts (Literature and Creative Writing) section of his notebook.

If you are keeping a running chart of "Choices A Writer Can Make," list "Repetition" as one of those choices. You can add to this list each time you have a lesson on Techniques Used by Writers and your list also gives you an easy format for review! Later, when your student wants to write a story of his own, he can go over the list and be reminded of the special ways that great authors have created stories that are interesting and enjoyable. You will see him begin to use some of these techniques in his writings, too.

Remember that Five in a Row does not teach "how to read." You may enjoy looking into Reading Made Easy for that portion of your teaching day.

You may stop here or go on to do another lesson from the language arts section. This is the end of day two with Five in a Row.

Day Three

On day three you'll re-read the story again, this time promising some interesting art lessons to follow. (The art lessons have been placed on Wednesday so that there will be two more days of reading the book and looking at the pictures.) Today as you read the story your child will be thinking, "ChinaÉ boatÉoh, there's that repetitious sentence we talked about yesterday!"

After reading the story, you'll mention that Kurt Wiese was the artist who created the illustrations for The Story About Ping. It looks as though he may have used some colored pencils. "Let's pick a few of the pictures to look at and see how many colors he used. Do the colors look like they blend together? Why don't we use some colored pencils and paper and see how yellow over red looks and maybe some yellow over blue."

Continue on with some of the other art lessons. They are easy to explain and quick to do. Again, you may want to keep a running list of Choices An Artist Can Make and include, as you go through the year, different medium, and other techniques. This list will serve as a point for review and allow your student to choose techniques from the list that he wants to include in his own art project of the moment.

This completes day three of Five in a Row.

For Thursday the reading of the story will have your student thinking of and recognizing all the previous lessons including a whole new look at the illustrations. Don't forget to find China on the map with the story disk. (Take the disk down each day before the lesson, so that your student can replace it on the map. Always help him cheerfully if he needs it.)

Day Four

Then proceed to the Applied Math lesson. These lessons are usually developed from the story to show children how math is used in their everyday world. The Story About Ping has only one math lesson and it is a counting one. With a younger student your lessons might begin, "Did you see all those ducks walking up to the boat? How many do you think there are? (Laughing: Oh yes, you're right...it's Ping, and his mother and father and two sisters, etc.) How about using a penny for each duck. I'll set the right amount out and you can count them. (Or draw them, or use yellow stickers, etc.) In this counting lesson the ducks can be counted, counted by two's, grouped, etc. For an older student, you might wish to skip this lesson and substitute additional lessons from other topic sections, if you wish. Most of the story units will have multiple lessons from which to choose for the Applied Math section. Remember that when your student is ready to begin a math curriculum, you need to find one even though you are doing the Applied Math lessons from Five in a Row. These Applied Math lessons are not a substitute for a regular math curriculum. Rather the Five in a Row lessons serve as your student's introduction and inspiration for math topics revealed in the stories that he reads and used in the world around him.

Math-U-See is a good curriculum to explore when you are ready.

This completes day four of Five in a Row.

Day Five

The last day, Friday, you will read the story for the last time. Imagine all the things your student is remembering as you read together! Usually when a child reads a book, he is mostly concerned with the plot. Through using Five in a Row, he will discover that a book has so much more to offer! There is often geography, history, foreign culture, character lessons, interesting ways that language is used and techniques by which great stories are written, amazing art, sometimes math, and as we'll see today there is often science in the stories he will read!

On Friday, after you've read the story and put the story disk up on the map for the last time, turn to the illustration of the little boy catching Ping. Ask your student why he thinks the boy has a barrel on his back. He may or may not guess that it is for his safety. (You can teach a water safety lesson here, too.) Tell him that 60 years ago on the Yangtze River they didn't have life preservers and water wings the way we have today and the boy's parents wanted to be sure he was safe in the water!

Ask your student, "Do you want to know how the barrel works? Well, there is a really big word--you don't have to memorize it--but I thought you'd like to hear how it sounds. The word is buoyancy. Isn't that a funny word? Yes, I like the sound of it, too. Anyway, buoyancy means being able to float in a liquid. Because the barrel is buoyant it helps keep the little boy up in the water. (Look at the Buoyancy lesson in the manual.) Why don't we do a bit of testing and see if we can find some things here at home to test for buoyancy. Continue with the lesson and find things that can be tested in a glass of water. Enjoying seeing what things float and what things don't. (For older students you may want to make a chart and predict whether or not an object is buoyant before you test it.)

All of the above is an example of the conversational presentation of the lessons in Five in a Row. The idea is to keep your lessons light, simple, exciting (through your voice and your interest in the subjects) and to engage in discussions, back and forth together, over the various topics. Remember, too, that it is important to tie each lesson to the story through your conversation by saying things like, "Did you notice in our story today____" or "Have you ever thought of____ that happened in our story? Or, "When we read The Story About Ping today, I noticed that___", etc. Each lesson is studied because it is something interesting in the story just waiting to be explored!

You may want to end your week with a meal that you make together from the Five in a Row Cookbook. Your student can use his knowledge of the week's story to name the various menu items. You'll find ideas for this activity in the cookbook. The end of the week celebration meal is a great time to cook together, set the table with theme related items from your story of the week. Invite a friend or extended family members and let your student share all the things he's learned during the week. There are special places for pictures of this event and for notes in your Five in a Row Cookbook that make this book a special keepsake of your times together, as well.

The Five in a Row Christian Character Bible Supplement is another way to add to your week's learning activities. These are simple lessons on character that flow easily from the week's story unit. There are many lessons for each story to choose from and these lessons can be discussed at bedtime, in the car, on the weekend or anytime you'd like to fit one or more of them into your teaching times.