Cause and effect is a super tough skill for us to teach and for students to master. So to help jump start your instruction, here are 5 ways that you can teach it to your students (and make it fun and relatable).
ACT THEM OUT
Act out scenarios with role play. Students will be begging to get involved and have a turn. You can simply write ideas on index cards, grab one, and have students brainstorm what the effect (or cause) might be, and then do a little skit. Some suggestions on what you could write on the cards: “I missed the bus,” “Mom forgot to check the oven”, “Frank put too many clothes in the washing machine,” “Ryan fell down on the playground”.
USE INTERESTING PHOTOS
Try grabbing fun pictures from places like Pixabay , printing them out, and using them for brainstorming cause and effect, or as writing prompts. I used to love to leave funny pictures as writing prompts for students when I was out and had a substitute. If you want to grab pictures like these but don’t want to hunt for them, try HoJo’s store on Teachers Pay Teachers for some great resources!
Here are a couple of fun pictures I found, all courtesy of Pixabay.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES
When working on cause and effect with children, I tend to use real life examples that they can understand and relate to. The comprehension skill of cause and effect can heavily depend on both the clues in the text or material and the background knowledge of students. So if students live in the city, I don’t use farm animal examples! And if students are of the age when they are losing teeth, that’s a great topic for a cause and effect example.
READ A GREAT BOOK
Well written and illustrated picture books can be terrific for examples and discussions of cause and effect. Definitely fun ways to practice cause and effect. Try these:
No David by David Shannon
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
A Funny Thing that Happened on the Way to School by Davide Cali
Stuck by Oliver Jefferies
The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble
TRY THESE READY-TO-GO RESOURCES
In order to help my students, I created a few resources for them. You can use them with your own first, second, and third graders!
Cause and Effect Pack: This resource has been popular for quite a while! Reviews from 126 5 star reviews include this one: “These were really helpful for my students to practice cause and effect in a different, engaging way. They needed the extra practice for this skill – and these did the trick!”
More Cause and Effect Pack: You can try out a sample page to try with your students by printing the last page of the preview!
Digital cause and effect: Need a digital resource? Try this one, which uses Google slides.
Freebie: Want a quick cause and effect freebie to try? Grab this one!
What is your favorite way to practice cause and effect? Let me know and I will add it!
