Putting a story in order

Retelling a story from its pictures: what happened first, next and last. Little Roos has 7 free games, tours and things to make that practise it, for ages 4-7.

Where it fits

In the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2), with the official wording:

• AC9EFLE03 (Australian Curriculum v9: English, Foundation): recognise different types of literary texts and identify features including events, characters, and beginnings and endings.
• AC9EFLE05 (Australian Curriculum v9: English, Foundation): retell and adapt familiar literary texts through play, performance, images or writing.
• AC9EFLY05 (Australian Curriculum v9: English, Foundation): use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising and questioning to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently.

Games that practise it

• Frog's Big Change: Life cycles: put the stages in order, from egg to frog and egg to butterfly. Ages 4-7.
• Flying Fox's Story Order: Putting a story's pictures in order: first, next and last. Ages 4-7.
• Bone by Bone: Putting steps in order, the way a museum builds a skeleton: a Muttaburrasaurus and a Diprotodon. Ages 4-7.
• What Happens Next?: Changes, in order: ice melting, a puddle drying up, a bean growing roots, a shoot, then leaves. Ages 4-7.
• Build a Truck: Putting steps in order: build a truck from its wheels up, and bin day from start to finish. Ages 4-7.
• Fruit Salad: Putting steps in order: make a fruit salad safely, and grow a tomato from a seed. Ages 4-7.
• Make a Story: Something to make.

Away from the screen

About two minutes each, with things most homes have.

Watch something grow (from Frog's Big Change)

1. Look for tadpoles in a pond or a creek (look, don't take them), or for a caterpillar on a leaf in the garden.
2. Go back each week and see what's changed. Draw what you see.
3. Talk about what comes next: what will the tadpole grow first? What will the caterpillar turn into?

Photo stories (from Flying Fox's Story Order)

1. Take three photos of something you do together: making toast, planting a seed, getting ready for bed.
2. Mix them up and ask: what happened first? Then next? What happened last?
3. Tell the story together, using "first", "then" and "at the end".

Things to ask while they play

• What does a tadpole grow first, its back legs or its front legs?
• Where does a butterfly lay her eggs?
• What happened first in the story?
• What happened just before the end?

More skills in Words, or every skill.

Updated 12 October 2026