Cause and Effect Worksheets

These worksheets help students begin to make inferences and work towards predictions based on them. This skill has become much more prominent over the last year.



Understanding Cause & Effect
Simple identification to get you started. Make sure to use complete sentences when you are working.

Fishing Fun Cause and Effect
Jeremiah and his friend go fishing. I thought that was supposed to be relaxing? This is a fun one for you. Got it love the image too!

Writing the Cause & Effect
The topics is a bit more complex in this version. Understanding the placement of each part of the sentence is an important skill too. It makes it very feasible for you to do it quickly.

Matching Cause and Effect
This format is seen very often on the new assessments. Match the cause and effect in this one. This is a similar format to what we are seeing in many new assessments.

What's the Cause & Effect?
These are very easy. A few of these sentence tend to hid the direct cause a bit. It adds an element of difficulty to the equation.

Vacation Cause and Effect
We give you the cause or effect and gives us it's counterpart. Lay back and take a breather for a second while you read about a fun vacation.

Find the Cause and Effect
Match one for group A to an effect in group b. Notice that these are aranged backwards from the title. At first it might confuse a few students.

Two Column Cause and Effect
This really helps with reading memory. Match the cause and effect in this one. This is a similar format to what we are seeing in many new assessments.

Cause and Resulting Effect
Please note that the columns are flipped on this version. Find the relationship between two sentence that makes sense.

Late to School Cause and Effect
A story about Alisa and her rush to start her school day. This is a very unique way of working on this skill. You will need to read the entire passage to come to a valid conclusion.

Sentence Based Cause & Effect
We try to catch students who don't pay attention by using two verbs. These sentences are very straight and to the point. These should help them understanding the dynamics of each sentence quickly.

Baking Cause and Effect
Baking makes for the perfect cause and effect exercise. I always ask why the food I cook doesn't taste good. Baking has never had so many consequences. We like this passage a great deal too!


How to Determine the Cause and Effect in a Sentence?

Reading could be challenging, especially if your students are getting into the habit. It could also be complicated for them to make sense of the text. To overcome this issue, you can introduce them to cause and effect relationship.

Understanding the cause and effect relationship and learning how to identify it in a text can give your students something to look forward to. Kids can start reading with a goal: to determine what caused a particular effect.

What Is a Cause and Effect Relationship?

Cause and effect is the relationship between two events when the occurrence of one event causes the other. For example, a daily intake of soft drinks will cause your blood sugar to rise. Here, the daily intake of soft drinks is the cause, whereas increased blood sugar is the effect.

Theoretically, a causal event will always take place before the effect. However, the cause and effect relationship is not stated in a particular order in writing. Therefore, it gets tricky to identify the cause and effect in a sentence. But don't worry. Keep reading below to find out how to distinguish cause and effect in a sentence.

Examples

Cause and effect relationship can be tricky to identify. However, teaching your students to look for certain clues in a sentence can help them develop this sense. Let's look at an example below:

Alexis broke off the engagement with Leo. Therefore, Leo was upset.

Can you identify the cause and effect in the sentence?

If Alexis breaking off the engagement is the cause and Leo being upset is the effect, you're correct. Now, what gave it away? Probably the preposition 'therefore'?

Prepositions are the perfect clues to identify cause and effect in a sentence. Although the order of preposition, cause, and effect in a sentence isn't fixed, it could still give you hints on where to look. Let's go through some common examples of prepositions as clues to get your students started.

- Brady will be practicing all night because he has a big game tomorrow.

Cause: he has a big game tomorrow

Effect: Brady will be practicing all night.

Clue: because

- Since it was raining in the afternoon, we decided to cancel our picnic.

Cause: it was raining in the afternoon

Effect: we decided to cancel our picnic

Clue: Since

- Max had a sore throat. Therefore, he was unable to sing today.

Cause: Max had a sore throat

Effect: he was unable to sing today

Clue: Therefore

- If Maria is not picking up her phone, then you should call Mia.

Cause: Maria is not picking up her phone

Effect: you should call Mia

Clue: If/then

- They have a deadline tomorrow. So, they won't be able to attend tonight's party.

Cause: They have a deadline tomorrow

Effect: they won't be able to attend tonight's party

Clue: So

Why Is Understanding Cause and Effect Relationship Important?

Your students must develop an eye for detail at an early age. Reading with an end goal will make them participate actively and be interested in the task. Understanding cause and effect and recognizing it can help students in many ways.

1. Sequencing of events: Categorizing cause and effect will assist your students in sequencing the events that occurred in a text or story. Students will be able to determine which event occurred after which, ultimately improving their comprehension skills.

2. Identifying underlying details: Understanding the cause and effect of an event will also allow your students to look for the reasons for those events occurring. In other words, your students will think critically about a subject and try to come up with logical reasons. This out-of-the-box thinking will also assist them in providing reasons for other subjects such as Science, History, etc.

3. Understanding patterns: If there are repetitive occurrences of an event, students will be able to identify a pattern. It will allow them to make inferences and predictions based on their already knowledge.

4. Recognizing intentions: Cause and effect will assist students in recognizing the characteristics and intentions of the characters they're reading about. Students will also be able to acknowledge the author's purpose in writing the story or text.

List of Topics for These Types of Essays

Identifying cause and effect relationship can be practiced best when students write something. Here are some popular topics for cause and effect essays that you can assign your students individually or in pairs.

- Analyzing deforestation


- Social Media

- Human Personal Anxiety

- Addiction

- The popularity of fast food culture

Writing essays on cause and effect relationship topics will reinforce the concept. It will also aid your students in practicing how to integrate cause and effect in their writing.

Conclusion

Cause and effect can be tricky, but with the practice of looking for clues in a sentence, your students will be able to develop this skill soon. Understanding cause and effect relationship and being able to recognize cause-and-effect examples is an effective reading strategy. Your students will develop a passion for reading when they can understand the details better.

Knowing which event caused another will also help students become better writers. They'll be able to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively to their reader, resulting in an improved language skill set.

Make your students fall in love with reading by introducing strategies like identifying cause and effect. Build their interest by giving them easy texts. Move on to difficult ones later. Happy teaching!