First Next Last Sequencing Task Box

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 22 pages

• 2 picture growth sequences, three stages each: egg → chick → chicken, and sprout → plant → tree
• 6 fill-the-blank sequence cards across 3 levels (2 cards each): three pictures in order with FIRST, NEXT, LAST printed under them, one picture blanked, and a row of picture choices the child marks from
• Every card twice: full-color pictures for a laminated classroom box and black-and-white line art for the photocopier
• 2 sequence mats (color and ink-saver): three labeled slots (FIRST, NEXT, LAST) with both sequences printed below as cut-apart strips — 6 pieces per mat — so the box also runs as a put-the-three-pictures-in-order task with no choice row at all
• An answer key listing every card by level, its answer, every picture offered on it, and a stage-word table for both sequences
• A task box data sheet (16 rows: date, level, cards used, cards correct, cards given, percent, help given, initials)
• A percent graph, 14 sessions across, with a level box under each session
• A filled example — an invented student, 8 sessions, every percent re-counted from its own row
• A family practice page with the same six cards and both sequence strips
• A phrase bank: 25 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for running the box, written starters for the note afterward)
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A task box built around the first, next, last vocabulary most sort-and-count sets skip: reading a three-step growth sequence and working out which stage is missing, not just naming a picture. It comes with the same data sheet, graph and phrase bank as the rest of the collection, so this practice turns into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

Three Levels, And The Blank Moves

• Level 1 — 2 cards, two pictures to choose from. The blank is always the LAST picture ("egg, chick, __" — what does it grow into?). The wrong picture is a stage of the other sequence altogether, so the first cards are nearly impossible to get wrong.
• Level 2 — 2 cards, three pictures to choose from. The blank is always the NEXT (middle) picture ("egg, __, chicken"), so the child has to read the picture on each side of the gap. Both wrong pictures are still stages of the other sequence.
• Level 3 — 2 cards, four pictures to choose from. The blank is always the FIRST picture ("__, chick, chicken" — what did it start as?), and one wrong picture is a near-miss: a stage of the same sequence already sitting on the card. A child who matches to what they can see marks it; a child who reads the order does not.

Moving up a level changes the blank's position and the number of choices at the same time, so a student cannot answer by card position alone. Nothing on a card says its level except a dot code in the corner (one, two or three dots), so a mixed-up box sorts itself back together.

TWO SEQUENCES, ON PURPOSE — a sequence goes in this box only if a young child can put its three pictures in order by looking, in color and in the black-and-white set. Two passed that check; the box is small because the check is strict, not because it is unfinished. The mat's cut-apart strips turn the same two sequences into an ordering task, so the six cards are not the only thing to do with it.

THE PICTURES — Noto Emoji by Google (color set, Apache License 2.0) and Fluent Emoji by Microsoft (ink-saver set, MIT License), the same two libraries as every picture task box in the collection. Every picture is named in one word a young child would use, printed under it on every card and strip.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the data sheet, the graph header, the family page and the example-style notes, or print and use a pen. The card pages and sequence mats print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document, and it is not a test of anything.

It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule, and it does not decide what a percent means for a student or when to move up a level. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. It measures one thing: cards with the missing picture correctly marked.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals running independent work stations or task box rotations with students working on first, next, last and picture sequencing, case managers who need that practice to show up as data, and the families who get the practice page sent home.

More In The Collection

This is one set in the Task Box Collection; more sort, counting, pattern and sequence boxes are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.