Sequencing the Order of Events

Third Grade Reading

The sequence of events help readers recount the most important parts of the story in order. Use this lesson with
your students to read fables and a classic picture book as you practice recounting the sequence of events.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to recount the sequence of events in a fiction text.

Materials and preparation Key terms

The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon sequence

Rainforest, by Lynne Cherry, or another fiction
picture book with a clear sequence of events
Class set of Making Predictions: The Lion and
the Mouse worksheet (remove or ignore the
questions at the bottom)
Two class sets of Timeline Organizer worksheet
Copy of the text from the Author’s Purpose: The
Ant and the Grasshopper worksheet
Document camera

Attachments

Making Predictions: The Lion and the Mouse (PDF)

Timeline Organizer (PDF)
Author’s Purpose: The Ant and the Grasshopper (PDF)

Introduction (2 minutes)

Give students an example of a common classroom procedure, such as morning arrival or going out for
recess.
Ask students to help you record the steps in the process.
Record the steps on the board or the document camera, and explain to students that they just gave you a
sequence of events of a common daily procedure.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (10 minutes)

Explain to students that today, they will be recounting a sequence of events from literature using a
graphic organizer. Sequence is the order in which things happen.
Prompt students to think about the importance of sequence of events in a story, and explain that, without
it, a story would be very confusing to the reader. It would feel disconnected, and the events would not
make sense.
Display a short text, such as The Ant and the Grasshopper, on the document camera. Use the Timeline
Organizer worksheet to record information.
Model identifying and recording the sequence of events. Show how the text supports your answers in the
graphic organizer by going back to underline or highlight them in the story. Write numbers next to the
events in the story to provide a clear visual for students.

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Guided Practice (15 minutes)

Distribute a copy of the Timeline Organizer to each student. Explain to them that they will listen to a
read-aloud and can jot notes down throughout it if they choose. After the read-aloud, they will get into
groups to record the correct sequence of events on the graphic organizer.
Read aloud The Great Kapok Tree. Point out instances where order words in the text signal a sequence of
events.
Divide students into groups to complete the graphic organizer, and circulate as they discuss and record
the sequence of events.
Go over the sequence of events, including only the most important events, as a class, and create a
master copy of the Timeline Organizer based on the student responses.
Go back to the book to model that using the text proves that the sequence is correct. Call on non-
volunteers to show text evidence as they offer answers.

Independent working time (10 minutes)

Give each student another copy of the Timeline Organizer and a copy of the Making Predictions: The Lion
and the Mouse worksheet. (Note: They will not need the questions section of the worksheet.)
Instruct students to read the fable and complete the Timeline Organizer with the correct sequence of
events.
Circulate and monitor students.

Differentiation

Enrichment:

Give advanced students longer texts with the challenge of picking out the four most important events to
put in sequential order.
Provide enrichment for students by having them write a paragraph that retells the story. Remind them to
use transition words contained in the graphic organizer.
Have students incorporate cause and effect reasoning with the sequence of events activity. Ask, “What
caused that event to happen? What are the effects of this event?”

Support:

Give students who are struggling different color highlighters to use to pick out the four major events
before they write on their Timeline Organizer.
Allow reluctant writers to simply highlight and number the events in the text, without writing them in
their own words on the graphic organizer.
Pick out the four major events and have them written on index cards for students to read and manipulate
as they decide the sequence of events.

Assessment (3 minutes)

Put students into A-B partnerships and have them read aloud their graphic organizers to each other.
Instruct them to put a checkmark or a star next to the events that they agree are correct on the graphic
organizer.
Circulate during the discussion, listening for students’ explanations of the correct sequence of events.

Review and closing (3 minutes)

Ask students to think about the process for identifying the sequence of events in literature.
Engage the class in creating a sequential list of four things a reader needs to do in order to complete the
Timeline Organizer.

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 Making Predictions:
The Lion and the Mouse
Name: Date:

Read the following fable. Write what you think would happen next.

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse
came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the
Lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny
creature to kill her.

“Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me go and some day I will surely repay
you.”

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was
generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion
was caught in the toils of a hunter’s net. Unable to free
himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring.
The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found
the Lion struggling in the net. Running to
one of the great ropes that bound him,
she gnawed it until it parted, and soon
the Lion was free.

“You laughed when I said I would repay

you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that
even a Mouse can help a Lion.”

1. What do you think the Lion will do next? Why?

2. What do you think the Mouse will do next? Why?

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 Timeline Organizer
Name: Date:

Use this graphic organizer to show the order of events in the text you read.

FIRST

NEXT

THEN

LAST

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Name: Date:

Author’s Purpose: The Ant and the Grasshopper

Directions: Read the story and answer the questions below.

Once there was an ant and a grasshopper who lived in a field. Every day,
Ant got up early and walked far to gather seeds. She balanced one seed
on her head at a time, walked it back to her home, and then went again
to the field to gather more. She was very small, so the walk was very
long. She worked the whole day, without ever stopping to rest. As Ant
worked, Grasshopper spent his days playing music, lazing in the sun.
“Why do you work so hard, Ant?” he laughed. “Summer is here! Why
waste the sunshine gathering seeds?” Ant replied, “I’m storing food for
the winter when there won’t be anything to eat!” Grasshopper laughed
and said, “Why are you worrying about winter now? There is plenty of
food!” He continued to play, while Ant got back to work.

When winter came, Grasshopper could not find any food to eat. He was
starving and felt very weak. When he noticed how hardworking Ant had
plenty of food to eat, he realized how foolish he had been.
Aesop, “The Ant and the Grasshopper”

1. Is this passage fiction or nonfiction? How do you know?

2. What do you think the author’s purpose was? Why?

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