Cause and Effect

This past week, my third graders and I worked on cause and effect. I had not covered the skill explicitly since we switched RTI groups, so this was new to some of my students and review for others. For this reason, I began with a read aloud of the popular If You Give A Moose A Muffin. Laura Numeroff's books are perfect for practicing cause and effect!

After reading aloud the book, we completed a cause and effect matching activity. For this activity, students matched a blue muffin (cause) with a pink muffin (effect). Or for a more challenging version, you may use black and white versions of the muffins so that students have to figure out the causes and effects for themselves.

If you would like a copy of the activity, you may purchase one my clicking on the image above or below. (You will be redirected to my TPT store.)

The next day, we began reading several short articles. I have found that articles about endangered animals and weather work extremely well with cause and effect. As usual, my go-to magazines were Scholastic News and Ranger Rick. To be honest, I was very surprised that the students were so fascinated with the article Ghost Cat. This article is about snow leopards, and the students must have had at least a hundred questions! (The beautiful illustrations certainly helped!)

With the first two articles, I typed up a mixed list of causes and effects. In previous lessons, I had just given students a list of causes or effects. This required students to switch their thinking. At first, students had a difficult time, but really improved over the week.

Students glued the causes and effects into their reader's notebooks, and we completed the charts together.

I used the final article about weather as an assessment. Students independently completed the graphic organizer below for the article. I really like this graphic organizer because it also asks students to explain their reasoning. They have to explain how or why the cause leads to the effect in each situation. If you would like your own copy of the graphic organizer, click on the image below.

Do you have any "tried and true" books or topics for teaching cause and effect?

Sequencing

I have been working on sequencing with my third graders this past week. We had previously focused on putting events in order, but this lesson highlighted the use of sequencing words. To continue practicing this skill, we read a version of the popular fairy tale Cinderella. This also gave us the chance to review the elements of fairy tales. Some of these elements include princes, princesses, magic, and the phrases "once upon a time" and "lived happily ever after."

I particularly like this version of the classic fairy tale because it has a reader's theater version of Cinderella at the end. The kids really loved acting out the play, except for when the prince had to ask the princess to marry him. We all had a good laugh at that part!

Before reading the story, we discussed some common sequencing words to be on the look out for. These phrases included: in the beginning, next, then, the next day, later, at the end. When students finished reading the story, we went back and discussed which sequencing words/phrases were found in this version of Cinderella.

Then, we worked together to pick out the main events of the story and selected certain sequencing words to create a summary of the fairy tale.

Each main event was written on a notecard. I chose lined notecards to help students with their writing. We folded the notecard in half. On the outside, we wrote the sequencing word. Then, we wrote the event on the inside. We then glued the events in order on a long strip of construction paper.

The students really enjoyed creating these sequencing strips. They added a more creative spin on sequencing.

I also could not resist reviewing cause and effect with this story. Cinderella provides some great examples of cause and effect relationships. I created a graphic organizer that included three of the main events from the story. These events are found in most versions of Cinderella and could easily be used with a different version than the one I used in my lesson.

I listed the causes, and the students and I worked together to identify the corresponding effects.

Here is a look at the graphic organizer and the answer key. You can find your own copy by clicking on the image below. Enjoy!

I am also linking up with Teaching Blog Addict to share this free resource with as many wonderful teachers as possible! I cannot wait to see what everyone else has created!  :)

Cause and Effect

The following is a lesson on cause and effect used with my fifth grade groups. To begin, I used an anchor chart to review the concepts of cause and effect with the students. By fifth grade, students have already been introduced to the concept.

Students glued a copy of the top portion of the anchor chart into their reader's notebooks. For the modeling portion of the lesson, I read aloud The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble. This book has numerous examples of cause and effect relationships. Some of the cause and effect relationships require students to really think because they are not listed in sequential order. For example, the causes for some of the events at the end of the book are found near the beginning of the book. This provided more of a challenge for the fifth graders.

Before beginning, I had already copied down several causes and glued them to the anchor chart. As I read, we paused and identified the corresponding effects. Students wrote the effects on post-its and we added them to the correct spot on the anchor chart. A list of cause and effect relationships for several of the "Jimmy's Boa" books can be found here.

The following day, we moved to the guided practice portion of the lesson. Students read the article Wild Weather from www.infohio.org. (article link - must have district login) This article lists causes of extreme weather conditions and climate change. Together, we completed a graphic organizer identifying the cause and effect relationships from the article. On the graphic organizer, I had already listed the causes. For each cause, I made students go back into the text and underline the cause. I told students we never guess from memory. I want proof.

The next day, for the independent practice portion of the lesson, students independently read the short story Keeper of the Light. This story can be found at www.infohio.org. (aricle link) Together we discussed the story and identified the main events. We then wrote these main events as "causes" on a blank cause and effect graphic organizer. Once again, I made students go back into the text and underline the causes to prove their answers. Students then independently identified the effects of these causes.

This lesson combined both fiction and nonfiction texts and incorporated the "gradual release of responsibility" model. Using a variety of texts provided students with a range of experiences, but also helped keep their interest by avoiding repetitiveness.