Learning About Cause and Effect!

Second Grade Reading

by April Brown July 27, 2018

Help your students understand what cause and effect looks like in everyday situations! This hands-on, engaging
lesson plan allows students to examine cause and effect in their own lives as well as fictional text!

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to identify cause and effect.

Materials and Preparation Key Terms

Class set of the Cause and Effect worksheet cause

Red and blue crayons effect
Six sticky notes (write the word cause on three
sticky notes and the word effect on three sticky
notes)
One copy of the Sports Cause and Effect
worksheet, with each cause and effect cut out
into strips
Projector or document camera
Reading logs or journals

Attachments

PDF
Cause and Effect for Kids
PDF
Sports Cause and Effect

Introduction (5 minutes)

Model a brief cause and effect scenario for your class. Before you begin, ask students to get out a reading
log or journal.
Encourage students to jot down words, phrases, and observations of your actions. Guide students by
writing the following prompting questions on the board to help them with their observations:
How do I look?
How do I sound?
How do I feel?
Pretend like you are rushing into the classroom. Next, drop your bag on your desk and act like you are
out of breath. Pretend like you are worried!
EL

Beginning:

Encourage students to draw a picture of your actions during the cause and effect scenario.
Define cause and effect prior to the lesson in English and student's home language (L1), if student is
literate in their home language.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Intermediate:

Encourage students to sit near the front of the class during the scenario.
Have students do a think-pair-share with a partner, sharing some of their observations from the scenario.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (10 minutes)

Write the following sentence starter on the whiteboard:

I woke up late so ____.
Explain to the students that every day, things happen that lead to other things happening. Explain that
sometimes what happens is out of our control, and other times what happens is because of certain things
we do or forget to do!
Write the words "cause" and "effect" on the whiteboard.
Explain that when something happens that makes something else happen as a result, that is called the
cause. Tell the students that what happens after is called an effect.
Underline the phrase "I woke up late." Then, write the word "cause." Explain that the cause of the actions
you just modeled was waking up late.
Explain to students that the word so helps show that waking up late caused other things to happen.
Ask student volunteers to share some of the effects that happened because you woke up late. Encourage
them to refer to their reading logs or journals to use their observations to support their answers. Finish
the sentence starter by writing their ideas on the board in complete sentences. Ideas for the above
scenario include:
I woke up late so I rushed into the classroom.
I woke up late so I was out of breath when I arrived.
I woke up late so I dropped my bag on my desk.
I woke up late so I felt worried.

EL

Beginning: Provide students with vocabulary cards that define cause and effect in student-friendly language
with connecting visuals.

Intermediate: Ask students to explain cause and effect in their own words.

Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (10 minutes)

Write the following sentences on the whiteboard:

I believed in myself so I tried out for soccer.
I felt sick to my stomach so I called my dad to pick me up.
I lost my stuffed animal so I felt sad.
Call on a few student volunteers to come up to the board to label the cause and effect of one of the
sentences, using the pre-labeled sticky notes.
Put the students in five small groups and pass out two strips from the Sports Cause and Effect worksheet
to each group.
Explain that students have a few minutes to read the cause phrase on the left and circle the correct
effect on the right.
Allow each group to share out their cause and effect sentences with the rest of the class. Clarify any
confusion before moving on.

EL

Beginning: Allow students to work in a small, teacher-led group using cause and effect images (instead of
sentences) to support comprehension.

Intermediate: Allow students to work with partners.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/

Independent Working Time (10 minutes)

Ask students to go back to their seats and pass out the Cause and Effect worksheet to each student.
Explain to students that they will read the short fictional stories and answer the corresponding questions.
Model completing number one for students.
Have students complete numbers 2–4 independently.
Walk around and assist students as necessary.

EL

Beginning: Allow students to sort prepared images into piles of cause and effect, encouraging students to use
simple words and sentences to describe what is going on in the picture.

Intermediate: Allow students to work in small groups or with partners.

Differentiation

Support: Allow students to work with a partner during independent work time.

Enrichment: Encourage students to create their own cause/effect sentences and illustrate them.

Assessment (10 minutes)

Ask students to get out their reading logs or journals.

Write the following sentence starters on the board:
My mom dropped me off at my friend's house so ____.
My dad asked me to help with dinner so ____.
I was kind to my friend so ____.
I forgot to tie my shoe so ____.
Pass out a red and blue crayon to each student. Explain that students will write the sentence starters in
their reading logs or journals and finish them, using their own ideas and words. Next, they will underline
the cause with red crayon and the effect with blue crayon.
Rotate around the room and support students as needed.

EL

Beginning: Have students split a paper in half and illustrate a cause and effect picture from their own life. Help
students write a sentence based on their picture.

Intermediate: Allow students to complete two sentence starters of their choice as a formative assessment.

Review and Closing (5 minutes)

Have students do a think-pair-share with a neighbor, sharing two of their finished sentences and
identifying the cause and effect of each sentence.
Explain that identifying the cause and effect in our own lives and when we read deepens our
understanding of situations and stories!

EL

Beginning: Allow students to explain cause and effect in English or L1, using their vocabulary cards and images
for support.

Intermediate: Allow students to share one of their finished sentences with a partner.

Get more lesson plans at https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/