Jon, Flash 5 comes with its own turtorial. I'm not exactly sure if I remember it's exact location, but I'm quite sure that if you go to the "Help" bar at the top, it'd be in there.
I went through it once, and a couple of sections twice, before, and that gave me a basic understanding of how it works. If you take the time to go through it, I'm sure you'd have a better understanding of the program itself.
Also, if you need more, I do believe there are tutorials online, which could easily be found with a little searching.