For young students, the process of learning to sequence events in order with the correct phrasing can be difficult. It's a skill they will use in mathematics, English recounts and retells and in history which is why practicing this skill is so important.
One of my best sellers for sequencing is the picture card packet (click here, then 'Preview' watch a video demonstration) and it really works for reinforcing the concepts of first, then, next and lastly when sequencing.
With Christmas in the air and excitement rising about nativities, craftivities and all the other 'tivities' going on, I considered the possibility of bringing some real-world, hands-on sequencing tasks into my student's lives. Cooking is one way to reinforce the importance of getting sequencing right and gives students a great real-life experience to write about (no writing prompts need here!).
Okay, so not all teachers are going to have access to a stove at school, however, I have set this task for homework before and it's been a fantastic reinforcement. This pack comes with several useful resources that can be put together in the classroom and taken home for homework. Parents can see first-hand how well their students can sequence and share a fun baking activity with their child. Who knew homework could be this much fun!
Well 'The proof is in the pudding' they say and so I set about baking some cookies with my middle child to show you how it's done.
FIRSTLY we preheated the oven and lined two trays with baking paper.
NEXT we beat butter, sugar and vanilla essence for 2 minutes after which we added an egg and flour.
...we also added chocolate chips!
THEN we rolled the mixture out flat...
and cut out shapes with our cookie cutters (my child demanded two gingerbread men shapes)
LASTLY we baked our cookies for 15 minutes.
After all that fun of baking we then did a recount with our fantastic flip book (available in the pack)
The flip book can be used with or without the enclosed images and allows students to practice their recount in their own words using the flip book prompts.
Also inside this pack you can find some useful retell sheets, bright and engaging sequencing images for your whiteboard and some cute cookie labels for the finished product.
You can find the complete pack here, where you can see a video preview of the flip book in action.
Alternatively, if you'd like to try my free sequencing pack just click here.
