If you’re working on cause and effect activities during your ELA (English Language Arts) block, then consider these free activities and worksheets.
These are worksheets and creative ideas for students in first grade, second grade or third grade to match a cause with the most-reasonable effect.
Help your students connect the dots in the relationship between cause and effect in well-loved stories for some great, high quality lesson plans!
Free Primary ELA Cause and Effect Printables
1. Cause Effect With Amelia Bedelia – What a great character Amelia Bedelia is for studying cause and effect.
Here is an anchor chart, craftivity and worksheet that you can use along with Amelia Bedelia books to practice identifying the cause and the effect.
2. Scoot Activity – You’ll love this entire post that includes 3 lesson plan ideas on how to model, illustrate and practice identifying cause and effect.
Create flip books to define vocabulary, create an anchor chart and get kids moving by practicing identifying in a game of scoot!
3. Illustration Page – When students can illustrate examples from a well-loved story or familiar one, it helps them be able to identify and apply the concept to not as familiar stories.
Read about how this teacher uses “Goldilocks and the 3 Hares” to work on cause and effect.
4. Cause & Effect Matching Worksheet – Have students match the most reasonable effect to the cause by drawing lines. Great for additional practice or for a pre-assessment.
5. Reader’s Notebook Entry Organizer – Students can really improve their skills when you give them multiple opportunities to identify and use their critical thinking skills.
Read these tips on helping students improve by using a reader’s notebook.
6. Simple Sentences Cause and Effect Worksheet – Here is a worksheet that asks students to identify the cause and the effect within simple sentences.
It’s a great practice activity that would work great on a projector using color to highlight the signal words and practice identifying them like the “angry birds” poster above mentions.
7. Cause & Effect Poster – Illustrate the meaning of both “cause” and “effect” when teaching this skills by using students’ schema of the word ‘because’.
Students can use the word and this poster to help remember and recall it easily.
8. The Snowy Day Cause and Effect Craftivity – If you like using trade books to help teach concepts, then this one is perfect fro you. It’s an adorable craftivity that uses The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.
It’s a great activity to see that there are many cause-effect relationships in one book!
Cause and Effect Lesson Plan Ideas
9. A Bad Case of Stripes – Use A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon and have students create a craftivity to connect the cause of students and her surroundings to the effect of her changing skin patterns and colors.
Older students may also be able to see the symbolism cause and effect or caring about what others think and the effect it can have on someone.
10. Cause and Effect Commercial Activity – Commercials are quick snippets of condensed video that often are fantastic illustrations of cause and effect. Students can use a graphic organizer to jot down what they notice or create their own.
11. Cause & Effect with Laura Numeroff Books – Take If You Give a Cat a Cupcake as an example of the fun books that can be used for lessons.
Your students can always create a craftivity illustrating one from her books or having students create their own.
12. Cause & Effect with Technology Centers – Bring in QR codes and mapping using your favorite kid-publishing software.
Students can create maps, mystery cause/effect situations and practice finding them while reading from classroom devices.
Thanks to these teachers for their free downloads and creative lesson ideas. Your tips are fantastic! Feel free to grab the “I’m a Featured Teach Junkie” blog button as your ideas are definitely worth the shout out.
More Reading Activities
- 5 Quick Reading Tips and Fun Ideas
- Story Elements {Teaching Characters and Plot Structure}
- Teaching Common Core Non-Fiction – 3 Tips
- “PQ3R” Non-fiction Reading Strategy
Leslie {aka the original Teach Junkie} loves learning new things to make teaching easier and more effective. She enjoys featuring creative classroom fun when she's not designing teacher shirts, making kindergarten lesson plans or planning her family's next trip to Disney World.