Sequences provide possibilities for a class on food and nutrition, the former being of greatest interest in grade two. A class can be divided into cooking groups, each containing a recipe that uses simple ingredients from the main food groups. Kids can collectively (as a class) identify and record which food in their recipes belongs to which food group. Then they must try to figure when to add their respective ingredients to the recipe, based on lesson content provided by the teacher. The activity concludes with groups following the recipe instructions by sequence.
Stories must contain a logical sequence in order to make sense. Grade two kids are old enough to imagine and contribute to a class story about a new student's first day at their school. Teachers can guide a discussion to make a list of things that the new student would experience. This allows kids to brainstorm, from memory, the schedules and routines of their first day. Using information written on the board, students can works in groups to generate a correct sequence in an assigned time frame. Groups can go over their lists as a class. Students can subsequently assemble a welcome package for the new student that contains the list of things to do upon arrival.
The chaos of a child's bedroom provides kids an opportunity to acquire sequencing skills in art. Grade two learners could draw their messy room and show it to classmates. Participants could laugh at the lack of order in the bedroom and its many objects. Then, the dreadful declaration from their mother (played by the teacher): "Clean up this mess!" Kids already have a rough sketch of their rooms; now, their job is to draw the tidied room using sketched objects for accuracy and order. Students would accomplish this by drawing in sequence to neatly compose the picture.
Second-graders can acquire math skills with the "Lily Pad Game." (Check References for materials.) Contestants play by vertically or horizontally jumping from one pad to another for points. Each pad contains simple math calculations which students record with each jump and tally at the end to determine the winner. The game board contains blank pads that students must avoid, and this encourages them to consider math-based options. In this case, the rules encourage students to repeatedly sequence their moves. Teachers could turn this activity into a class tournament with ascending levels of math difficulty at each stage. Participation in the "Lily Pad Game" confirms a student's sequencing success.