Worksheet Grade 1 English Language Arts
Blue Heron Park's Water Story: A Grade 1 Sequencing Worksheet
A grade 1 worksheet where students order the events of a short rain story and write sentences using first, next, and then to describe what happens to a puddle.
Objectives
- Students will put the events of a short rain story in the correct order.
- Students will identify temporal words that signal the order of events.
- Students will write sentences describing story events using first, next, and then.
Vocabulary
- Cloud
- A cloud is a visible mass of tiny water droplets or ice crystals floating in the sky. Clouds form when water vapor cools and condenses onto tiny particles of dust or salt in the air.
Also: puddle, first, next, then, last
Teacher overview
At Blue Heron Park (a fictional park used for this worksheet), rain fills a low spot on the walking path into a puddle almost every week. This worksheet gives grade 1 students four short events from that same simple story and asks them to put the events back in order, matching the sequencing skill first graders practice in narrative writing. The later items ask students to write their own sentences about the story using the temporal words first, next, then, and last.
Student Worksheet
- Read these four parts of a story. Write 1, 2, 3, or 4 by each part to show the order. A) The puddle was gone. B) Rain fell on the park. C) The sun came out. D) A puddle formed.
- Circle the word that means after this: first, next, or before.
- Fill in the blank. Water can rise up and become part of a ____. Word bank: cloud, shoe.
- True or false. The sun can make a puddle smaller.
- Write one sentence about what happens first in the story. Use the word first.
- Write one sentence about what happens after the sun comes out. Use the word then.
- Look at this order. Puddle, rain, sun. Is this the right order? Circle yes or no.
- Write the four parts of the story. Use first, next, then, and last.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: B, D, C, A, in that order. Rain fell first, then a puddle formed, then the sun came out, and last the puddle was gone.
- Answer: Next. Next means a step that comes after something else has already happened, which is why it signals order.
- Answer: Cloud. Water that rises into the air can become part of a cloud, not a shoe.
- Answer: True. In the story, the puddle was gone after the sun came out, which shows the sun can make a puddle smaller.
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept any sentence that correctly uses first and describes rain falling, such as "First, rain fell on the path."
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept any sentence that correctly uses then and describes the puddle shrinking or disappearing, such as "Then the puddle got smaller."
- Answer: No. Rain fell first, and the puddle formed after the rain.
- Answer: Answers will vary; accept any four sentences that use first, next, then, and last in order and correctly describe rain falling, a puddle forming, the sun coming out, and the puddle disappearing.
Differentiation
Support
Provide the four events from item 1 already printed on separate strips of paper so students can physically arrange them in order before writing the numbers, and offer the sentence frame "First, ___. Then, ___." for items 5 and 6.
Extension
Ask students to add a fifth sentence using the word last that describes what the path looks like once the puddle is completely gone, and to read all of their ordered sentences aloud to a partner.
ELL supports
Pre-teach puddle, cloud, and the four order words with simple picture cards and matching hand motions (a flat palm moving forward for next, a stop hand for last) before students begin. Allow item 8 to be completed with short phrases rather than complete sentences.