What Happens First?

Sequencing: the child works out what happened first, next and last, and writes the numbers in the boxes. The stories are all ones a young child already knows from life or from the science corner rather than from a book — an acorn growing into a tree, an egg hatching, getting dressed, making a sandwich, a day from waking up to bedtime, a school day, and the life cycles of a butterfly, a frog and a plant — so the ordering is done from experience and not from having read the right story. Ask for fewer panels and the story is sampled down rather than cut short: the beginning and the end are always there. Captions under the pictures are printed in the book's language.

Age

ages 3–9

Answer key

Included, free

Skills

sequencinglogicvocabularyvisual discrimination

What you can change

• Story

  An acorn grows into a tree, An egg hatches, Getting dressed, Making a sandwich, Morning to bedtime, Life cycle of a butterfly…

• How many panels

  3–6 panels

• Around each panel

  Thin box, Shaded panel, Nothing

• Words under the pictures

• Every page also takes the book's language, page size, theme and pictures.