Cause and Effect Activities: Teaching Tips and Ideas

About a year ago, I had a teacher ask me if I had any resources with mysteries similar to my main idea mysteries. At the time I didn’t have any, but now I’m happy to say I’ve made a new mystery all about… Cause and effect! These cause and effect activities and mysteries are a hit!

Cause and Effect Activities – The Mystery

Cause and effect mysteries are the perfect introductory activity when teaching cause and effect. To set up the mysteries, you’ll need 6 bins or manilla envelopes.

Inside each one, place the four clue cards. Students must figure out which card is the CAUSE. The other 3 cards are the EFFECTS. In the digital example below, the cause is that my dog stepped on a sharp nail.

Students will complete six different mysteries. When conducting these mysteries, I like for students to work in groups of 3-4. They get about 3-5 minutes per mystery before rotating.

Cause and Effect Scrambles

After using the cause and effect mysteries, there are a few follow-up activities I like to use. These cause-and-effect scrambles are easy to implement printables for practice or formative assessment.

Students cut out the four sentences at the bottom and determine where each one belongs to complete the cause and effect scenarios.

Cause & Effect Puzzles & Reading Passages

These cause-and-effect passages are perfect to use with small reading groups. Each reading passage contains multiple examples of cause and effect. Students will read the passage and complete the cause and effect statements.

I also LOVE the cause and effect puzzles! They make for a super fun literacy center that students can complete independently or with a partner.

You can find all of these digital and printable cause and effect activities here!

Looking for picture books you can read to your class when teaching cause and effect? I’ve compiled the ultimate picture book list for you! Just click here!