Pop-Up Nursery Rhyme Sequencing Cards -

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My daughter still loves nursery rhymes. And, she’s learning to read this year. So, I’ve been putting together activities and printables for her related to phonics, rhyming, syllables, and word families.

My latest idea was to make story sequencing cards so we could recite the rhymes and play with nursery rhyme sequencing and retelling. And, I decided to add a fun pop-up element to it.

Why Teach Story Sequencing?

Story sequencing is when children identify the parts of a story, the beginning, middle, and end. It is also the retelling of events in order of how they happen, first, last, etc.

Sequencing works on skills like:

Reading Comprehension – Putting stories together through activities like this helps children work on the ability to understand what they read.

Learning Ordinal Numbers – As your child places the story pieces in the correct order they are thinking through which part of the story comes first, second, third and so on.

Attention to Detail – For instance, in this particular story sequencing activity I used two types of flowers. So, knowing that the “flower part” of the rhyme comes next isn’t enough.

They will have to think about the line, “Silver bells and cockleshells,” to know which flower to place first. Your child will have to distinguish between the two flowers to know which order to put them in.

Problem-Solving – Children have to put the pieces of a story together like a puzzle allowing for problem-solving practice.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

I have plans to make many more of these pop-up sequencing cards. But, I started with Mary, Mary Quite Contrary because we’re currently reading The Secret Garden.

Again:) It is my daughter’s all-time favorite book.

I had somehow forgotten that Mary in the book gets compared to the Mary of the nursery rhyme. Because of her “contrary” manner at the beginning of the story.

And, of course, the book is also full of gardens, planting, and nature. So, it’s the perfect activity to combine with our read-aloud.

The rhyme goes like this:

Mary, Mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

Pop-Up Nursery Rhyme Sequencing Card Assembly

1. Print out the story card and pieces (this is the printer I use). I used cardstock because I wanted the card to stand up well when sitting on the table.

2. Fold the story card in half on the dotted line. Making sure that the writing is on the outside.

3. Cut along each set of solid black lines.

4. Fold the card back the opposite way, so the writing is now on the inside.

5. Open the card back up and pop out the cut portions.

6. Cut out and attach story sequencing pictures to the bottom half of the popped out portion using tape or a glue stick.

My daughter chose to use tape to attach her pieces because she’s been working on the skill of breaking the tape off from the dispenser.

It only took her a few minutes. But, she played with this card all afternoon. Opening and closing it and reciting the rhyme many times.