Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Review: 4-Scene Sequencing Cards
Sequencing cards are an interesting educational toy probably off most parents’ radar, or at least they were off mine.
I picked up Four Scene Sequencing Cards by Frank Schaffer Publications at a preschool-going-out-of-business sale.
Forty-eight thick cardboard squares depict a dozen mini-stories, each in four illustrated pictures.
For example, a girl plugs in a popcorn popper with her father, pours kernels into the popper, watches popcorn fill a bowl, and finally she eats popcorn with her dad.
You prompt your toddler to tell you which scene comes first, second, third and fourth. Then you alternate using different words, such as beginning, middle and end. More advanced variations involve giving a toddler several picture sets to sort before determining their order.
These cards teach sequential order, narrative order (storytelling), and prediction skills.
On her first time through, my almost 3-year-old daughter couldn’t sequence a scene of a boy making a phone call, even though she is no stranger to how phones work.
There is a level of logical thinking required to piece together the events of a scene. That’s what these cards help do, help with storytelling ability.
On a broader scale, they might deal with the concept of the progression of time. To my daughter, Grandma’s visit three months ago occurred yesterday and her once-a-week gymnastics class that she attended yesterday will occur tomorrow.
She knows a days-of-the-week song by heart, but the meaning and passage of timeâ€”except sunrise and sunsetâ€”escape her. Can her giving an order to a sequence of events help her with more abstract ideas such as time? I wonder.
The cards are intended for ages 3 to 10. My Little Miss was able to sequence most of the cards with a little thought, although ability seems tied to familiarity.
Her male friend who is a month younger failed using the cards, except for one scene in which a girl stacks blocksâ€”the boy is a big block lover. Toddling boys seem to be slower in the educational realm while excelling in physical skills.
Incidentally, the depicted block-stacking girl wears leg braces and the other children on the cards are of mixed races, which was nice to see.
One scene I debated my daughter about depicted a girl grabbing a sleeping bag from a closet, unrolling it, getting inside and going to sleep. But to hear my daughter tell the story, the girl had just woken up and was putting her sleeping bag away. In the absence of additional evidence, I had to concede her point was possible.
My cards have a listed copyright of 1988, but are still in excellent condition, especially for having weathered a preschool. Today’s version of the cards might depict some different scenes, although the illustration style appears to be the same. Find 4-scene cards at Amazon, and 6-scene cards at the publisher’s web site, each in the ballpark range of $12.
Now, if you think these cards represent heavy handed learning at a time when toddlers
should be playing with toys, shame on you for creating a distinction between
learning and playing.
convinced a slew of neighborhood boys that painting a fence was the
funnest activity in the world. The boys even paid Sawyer for the privilege. Mark Twain’s story is often construed as
Sawyer fooling and exploiting naivetÃ©, but if the neighborhood boys had
fun, that says something about Sawyer’s negative perspective.
The boys did
have fun because they could have stopped at any time, but instead
painted until they were exhausted. So, my point is, approach all
activities with a fun outlook and your toddler may very well do the same.