This is a cut and paste activity with scenes from the story. There are two versions to allow for differentiation – one without any text and one with very short pieces of text. The activity reinforces the science about medicines presented in the story, and also offers pupils the opportunity to develop cross-curricular skills such as ordering and sequencing events, looking for the chronological and logical orders of events and recalling a story.
- Children cut out the boxes and put them in the right order – the reverse of the story! Their 'flow diagram' should start with finding a new chemical which might make a new medicine, and finish up with a picture of doctors prescribing some medicine.
- Once the pictures have been correctly ordered, they can be coloured in. If there is time, pupils may enjoy adding a picture of themselves to each box. More able pupils can add writing to the boxes to explain what is happening in more detail. Less able pupils may need support with the ordering.
- The completed boxes can be stuck down in order on a piece of paper headed 'Where do medicines come from?'
- The boxes should be linked by arrows from top to bottom.
- If there is time remaining children could illustrate the page around the flow chart with pictures of different medicines.
- Each pupil should end up with a poster titled 'Where Do Medicines Come From?' This can be used as display work, possibly in conjunction with the Making Medicines posters