1. Cause and Effect

2. What is a cause?
A cause is a reason something happens or happened. You deal with causes everyday. You go to school because… You like it. Your parents make you. It’s the law. You like to see your friends.

3. What is an effect? An effect is what happens.
The effect happens because of the cause.
Cause: You like peanut butter.
Effect: You eat peanut butter.
Susan: The similarity in wording of the cause and effect make this confusing for kids who are learning the relationships for the first time.

4. Cause and Effect in Reading
You can find cause and effect when you read, too.
Cause and effect may happen naturally in a story.
Writers also sometimes create cause and effect situations in stories.

5. Name the cause and effect
Late again for school, Shivani ran to catch the bus.
Cause: Shivani is late.
Effect: She ran to catch the bus.
The crowd cheered when Paul scored a goal.
Cause: Paul scored a goal.
Effect: The crowd cheered.

6. Creating Cause and Effect
Writers sometimes create cause and effect situations in stories.
Brandon’s mother forgot her keys and was late picking him up from school. Because he had some extra time, Brandon met Jingo, an elf who lived inside the school gym.

7. Name the cause and effect
Brandon’s mother forgot her keys and was late picking him up from school. Because he had some extra time, Brandon met Jingo, an elf who lived inside the school gym.
Cause: Brandon’s mother was late.
Effect: Brandon met an elf.

8. How to spot cause and effect
Certain words can be clues for spotting cause and effect.
because
then
next
since so

9. Find the Cause and Effect
Groundhogs are large rodents that live throughout North America. Wild groundhogs live for 2-6 years, but they can live much longer in captivity since they do not face the same dangers as their wild relatives. Groundhogs are also called woodchucks and whistlepigs. While they do not “chuck” wood, they do make a high pitched whistling sound when threatened.

10. What did you come up with?
Now that you have read the paragraph about groundhogs, what examples of cause and effect did you find?

11. Let’s take a closer look
Groundhogs are called whistlepigs. They make a high-pitched whistling sound when threatened.
Cause: make high pitched whistling sound
Effect: named whistlepig
*Notice that this example does not use specific word clues, yet you can still find the cause/effect
Susan: high-pitched should be hyphenated here and in story. “name” should be named” “how about” sounds slangy.

12. Now you try it
The whistlepig example shows another cause and effect relationship.
Can you spot it?
Susan: Picture would help. Even something like a magnifying glass.

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