Science and Technology K–6 · Kindergarten
Steps in order: following and fixing a recipe
Digital Technologies, sequencing instructions (NSW 2017)
The idea
A set of instructions only works when the steps are complete and in the right order.
Safety card
Hazards
- Food allergy; knife
Controls
- Allergy register checked; plastic knife handled by the adult; food eaten only at the eating area
Note
Food handling: check the class allergy register, wash hands, use clean boards and disposable gloves; nothing prepared in a science area is eaten. Record the activity on Primary School RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au).
What you need
- Six picture cards for making a sandwich (get bread, spread butter, add filling, put the top slice on, cut in half, eat) shuffled
- Real ingredients for a demonstration: bread, butter or a dairy-free spread, a nut-free spreadable filling, a plastic knife, a board and a plate
- A second card set for another everyday task chosen by the class (washing hands, planting a seed)
How to do it
- Lay the shuffled cards out. Put them in the order you think works.
- The teacher follows the class order exactly with the real ingredients, doing only what each card says.
- If the sandwich goes wrong (filling on the plate, cut before the top goes on), find the card that is out of place and move it.
- Run it again from the new order until the sandwich is right.
- Order the second card set and say the steps aloud to a partner who mimes them.
What you should see
A wrong order fails at a visible point: buttering before there is bread, or cutting before the top slice is on. Each fix moves a card and the run gets further. The learner knows it worked when the teacher's literal run produces a finished sandwich with no step skipped and no step repeated.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- The order of steps does not matter as long as all the steps are there.
- A person following the steps will fill in what was left out (a computer will not).
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-22.STe-7DI-TSTe-2DP-T
- Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.STE-DDT-01
- Australian Curriculum v9No Australian Curriculum v9 code is listed.
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.