It’s true that sequencing is so common in our day-to-day life, recognizing patterns and putting things in order usually comes naturally for our students over time.
Even at home, whether they’re putting toys in order from biggest to smallest, or recognizing daily patterns and predicting routines; sequencing can become almost intuitive once kids have enough exposure and practice.
Developing these skills helps our kids develop attention, planning, working memory, and organization. A great way to set them up for success in the primary classroom is by utilizing sequencing tasks to build reading and writing skills.
Are you looking for ways to bring sequencing lessons to life in your classroom? Maybe you’re wondering why we need to spend time developing this skill for reading and writing when we are focused on foundations. It’s also possible you have students who struggle with sequencing, and need a boost. I have you covered with research based strategies and resources to help your students shine when it comes to sequencing.
What benefits do sequencing activities do for little minds?
Sequencing skills help kids:
- Build and follow routines
- Recognize patterns
- Make predictions
- Have story comprehension
- Recognize transitional order: first, next, last
- Recognize story elements: Beginning, middle, End
- Retell stories in the order they happened
- Recall events in the order they happened
- Put things in order
- Find order in new tasks and concepts to bring meaning
- Develop writing and spelling skills
- Develop decoding skills
Practicing sequence skills builds brain function when it comes to planning, time management, organization, and self-control.
Students always benefit from repeated, predictable patterns and routines in school and at home.
Where to start in your class
Consider using games and activities you can build into your morning meetings and transitional blocks to practice sequence and order every day. Using numbered groups, line order, and predictable classroom routines, etc… also builds in sequencing practice.
Use task charts and checklists for students who struggle with executive function. Applying them in daily life reinforces sequencing skills when it’s time to apply them to your Reading and Writing blocks.
Using a curriculum bundle with the same repeated steps each time is another example of sequencing that teachers can use throughout their daily routines. In the next section, I share 1 Reading and 1 Writing Bundle I created to help your students become sequencing superstars!
Literacy Sequencing Activities
Speaking of sequencing and putting things in order, our little ones become good readers first before they become good writers.
I have a bundle for each, but FIRST, let’s start with the Reading Sequencing Bundle.
In this bundle, I share 30 activity sheets where students will go through the same steps to put a story in order.
1- Each page starts with three pictures that tell a story in order.
2-Underneath, there are three sentences that match the pictures that students will put in order by numbering them.
3- Finally, students will write a sentence to end the story.
NEXT, Check out my Writing Sequencing Bundle.
1- Start with pictures to tell a visual story in order
2- Below the pictures, there is a section to write three sentences that tell what happened in the beginning, middle, and end.
You can introduce each of these bundles by practicing together as a class, and giving students more independence as you move through the stories until they are able to complete each page independently.
Strategies and resources to help your students shine!
We all want to give our students a great foundation for becoming organized thinkers and problem solvers. They thrive when they build those comprehension strategies that help them shine across the curriculum. I hope this blog post gives you the boost you’re looking for.
I’d also love to hear more about the strategies that you use in your class to support sequential thinking. Make sure you are following me on Facebook and Instagram, and drop me a line to let me know what works for teaching sequencing in your classroom.
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