How to Make a Sundae Sequence Worksheet

Sequencing is the reading skill that lets a child hold a set of events in order and explain what happened first, next, and last. This How to Make a Sundae Sequence Worksheet gives young readers five simple how-to steps and asks them to decide which one starts the job and which one finishes it. Putting steps in order is the first form of plot a young reader meets: the same thinking a child uses to follow a recipe is the thinking he will later use to retell a story from beginning to middle to end, and it is the thinking a reading test asks for when it says what happened next.

Print this 1st grade sequencing worksheet and hand it out during a reading block, a small-group rotation, or a quiet morning start. Students read each of the five sundae steps, think about what has to happen before anything else can, and write the numbers 1 to 5 in the boxes. Two short questions at the bottom ask them to name what goes in the bowl first and what is added on the very top, so they have to look back at the steps instead of guessing. The full answer key on page two makes checking the page a two-minute job.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 5 out-of-order how-to steps to number and 2 short-answer sequencing questions

Three things make this How to Make a Sundae Sequence Worksheet work for first graders. First, the topic is one every child already knows, so no reading energy is spent decoding an unfamiliar situation and all of it goes into the ordering. Second, the steps are printed out of order, which forces real reading: a child who simply matches the top sentence to the first box will get it wrong. Third, the two written questions turn a sorting task into a comprehension task, because the answer has to be found in the text and written down in the student’s own hand.

Away from the page, sequencing practice is everywhere. Ask your students to tell you the steps for brushing their teeth, packing a backpack, or planting a bean seed, then write each step on a sentence strip they can shuffle and rebuild. Read a familiar picture book and stop after each page to ask what happened first and what will probably come next. Cooking together is the best practice of all: let a child read a recipe aloud one line at a time while you follow along, and pause cheerfully whenever a step gets skipped so they can hear why order matters. Signal words such as first, next, then, and last are worth naming out loud, because those are the words a reading passage will use.

Related Resources

• Making A Sandwich Sequencing Worksheet
• Brushing Your Teeth Sequencing Worksheet
• Planting A Seed Sequencing Worksheet
• Story Elements Song