Cause and effect can always be difficult for students to identify in a text. I tried some hands-on cause and effect activities with my kiddos and it really helped them grasp the concept! Try these activities with your own reading text for some cause and effect fun.
Our school uses the Journey’s Common Core Reading Series, and this week our story was Half-Chicken. We used an activity from my Half-Chicken Cause and Effect Packet. Reading seems to be harder to keep my sweet friends engaged because its not as hands-on as math! I try to include as many engaging reading activities as possible. I split the kiddos into groups and they worked together to match the causes with the effects from the story. They were so engaged and loved it!
For an extra challenge, the cause and effect activities also asked them to sequence the events in the correct order.
Making Cause and Effect Activities Fun
Now I must tell you about one of my favorite websites: Read Works. Y’all, this website is amazing. It has tons of leveled passages that are organized by skill, and so many more resources. Check it out! This week, we close read a passage from Read Works titled “We Need Water.” It is all about the water cycle, so it was a great way to integrate science and reading.
Then I made giant cause and effect dominoes to use with the passage. This was one of the most fun cause and effect activities I have ever done with my students.
To make the dominoes, I just wrapped old cereal and cracker boxes with wrapping paper. I typed up the stages of the water cycle and taped them to the “dominoes.” I partnered the students up and gave them a domino. Then, we went through the water cycle together using the passage to determine the sequence of events. Our water cycle domino chain was all set! Now here comes the fun part.
We discussed the concept of cause and effect, and talked about what would happen when the first event occurred. It helped the students visualize that each step caused something else to happen. And there goes the water cycle dominoes! The kiddos loved this, and it really helped them enhance their understanding of cause and effect in realistic situations. Awesome science-reading connection!
If you are looking for a way to connect reading and social studies, check out this blog post on Types of Communities. It has some great hands-on activities!
