Story Sequencing Cut and Paste: First, Next, Last

Scissors and a glue stick come out for this one. The top half of the kindergarten page holds two empty story lines, each with three dashed frames clipped to a line and the words First, Next and Last printed under them. The bottom half holds two strips of three pictures to cut apart, marked with a dot and a triangle that match the dot and triangle at the start of each story line. On the sheet shown one strip is an apple being eaten, shuffled as a whole apple, a core and a bitten apple; the other is a greeting card, shuffled as a card with a flower and writing on it, a blank card and a sealed envelope.

Three steps is the right size for the first time a child puts events in order, and the three time words sit under the frames so the order has a name before it is a number. Children who say the story out loud while they glue, first the apple is whole, next someone takes a bite, last only the core is left, are practising the telling of events in order that kindergarten writing asks for. Cutting and moving the pictures also lets a child try an order, look at it and change it before the glue goes on.

Show the children the dot and the triangle before they cut: the instruction tells them to glue each strip on the story line with the same mark, and pointing to the two pairs of marks once makes that clear. Print on plain paper, one sheet each; the strips cut apart along the dashed lines. The base page of the family asks for numbers under four pictures instead, and the retelling face later asks for the whole story in writing.