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The Missing Instructions, an Adventure Mission story cover

Mission 29

The Missing Instructions

Larkfield School keeps a page for every job in its big How-To Folder, and the wind has scattered it. A seed needs planting, the class tortoise needs looking after, a tent has to be up by dark, a bookshelf is still flat in its box, and Friday is the star party. Put each page back together so that someone can really follow it.

  • 5 parts
  • 10 to 15 minutes
  • Grades 4 and 5

Who is playing?

Each age gets its own version of the story. Any of them is fine to play.

Grades 4 and 5

The Bookshelf in a Box

The job: Repair the instruction sheet for the reading corner's flat-pack bookshelf, build it with Tariq, and explain each change.

  1. Six Steps, Out of Order With a PlayOwl plan
  2. The Step Nobody Wrote With a PlayOwl plan
  3. Two Pairs of Hands With a PlayOwl plan
  4. Which Holes? With a PlayOwl plan
  5. The Boot Bench With a PlayOwl plan
For grown-ups: what this mission practices

Putting the steps of a real job in a working order, noticing a step that is missing or does not belong, and reasoning about what each step needs first. Older children find steps that may trade places, plan the time, share work between two people, test instructions on a reader who does exactly what is written, and fix the wording rather than the reader, with reasons.

Ages
Five versions, from Preschool to Grade 8. They are different designs, not the same task with other numbers.
How it is checked
Every answer is checked by rules the child can see at work on the screen. Any answer that meets them is right.
Help
Olly can read any line aloud, give a hint that points at where to look, or show one way. A report says where help was used.
Time
Nothing is timed. A part takes a few minutes and progress is saved after each one for a signed-in child.