Cause and Effect is one of those skills that teachers shy away from. It’s complex. It’s tricky. It’s not.
Understanding cause and effect is a crucial skill for young readers to develop. It helps them make connections between events, improve their comprehension, and become more critical thinkers.
One effective way to teach cause and effect to kindergarteners and first graders is through engaging mentor texts. In this blog post, we will explore some creative strategies using 6 mentor texts: “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “The Doorbell Rang,” “Lola at the Library,” “Bear Wants More,” The Leaf Thief,” and “Stuck.”
If you give a mouse…cause and effect
Laura Numeroff’s classic book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” is an excellent starting point for teaching cause and effect.
Begin by reading the story to your young learners and then discuss how each action by the mouse leads to a new event or request.
Encourage students to identify the cause (the action) and the effect (the result) on each page.
Activity: Create a Cause and Effect Chain
- Provide students with cut-out pictures of various items and actions from the story.
- Have them arrange the pictures in a sequence that represents the cause-and-effect relationships from the book.
- Discuss their chains as a class, reinforcing the concept.
Secret Activity: Story Sequencing
- After reading any Laura Numeroff books, provide students with a set of cards featuring key events from the story.
- Ask them to arrange the cards in the correct sequence, reinforcing their understanding of cause and effect.
the doorbell rang
In “The Doorbell Rang,” Pat Hutchins presents a perfect opportunity to explore the concept of sharing and division.
A young girl bakes a batch of cookies to share with her friends.
As more friends arrive, she must keep dividing the cookies evenly, causing a chain reaction of changing cookie quantities and sharing.
This book is the perfect opportunity to integrate math skills. Although, kidnergartners are not asked to divide, they can be asked to create “fair shares” or “equal parts.”
Activity: Cookie Division
- Start by baking real or play cookies with your students.
- Read the book together and discuss how the number of cookies keeps changing as more friends arrive.
- Encourage children to divide the cookies evenly as they “share” them among their “friends,” reinforcing basic fair share concepts.
Lola at the library
Lola loves library day…just like most of your students.
But Why?
She loves everything about her adventure to the library with her mom.
From packing books, getting her library card, storytime and singing, choosing new books to the walk home.
This books is written in a beautiful cause and effect manner.
After reading the book, read sentence stems and have the students create cause and effect sentences from the book.
Today is Tuesday so…[it’s library day.]
She put her library books in her bookbag because…[she needs to take them back to the library and get more books.]
At night, her mother rads her a book because…it’ the best way to end the day!
Activity: Cause and Effect
- Discuss signal words (“so,” “because,” “since,” and “which caused” )
- Using signal word arrows with to create sentences for a pocket chart.
Secret Activity: Making Connectiond
- Discuss with students how they are alike and different from Lola.
- Do they like the library? Do they do some of the same activities as Lola.
don’t get ‘stuck’ on cause and effect
A young boy named Floyd gets his kite STUCK in a tree.
To retrieve it, he throws increasingly absurd items into the tree, resulting in a humorous and escalating series of events.
This book skillfully portrays the consequences of one impulsive decision leading to another, all in the name of getting that kite back.
I have personal connection to this book…because I was in charge of the string when my friend and I were flying a kite and I dropped it.
We jumped on our bikes and chased the kite into a huge tree…and we didn’t get it back. I did his paper route with him that week to pay him back for the kite.
Activity: Cause and Effect
- After reading “Stuck,” have students complete the one or two cause/effect sheets to show comprehension.
- This can be independent or partner work.
Secret Activity: Story Sequencing
- After reading “Stuck,” provide students with a set of cards featuring key events from the story.
- Ask them to arrange the cards in the correct sequence, reinforcing their understanding of cause and effect.
the leaf thief
The Leaf Thief is so fun! Squirrel is so happy in his leafy home!
He sits on the branches and sees the sun peak through the leaves as he names all the lovely colors, “red, gold, orange, red, gold, orange.”
Then he discovers a leaf is gone!
He is convinced someone is stealing his leaves.
He asks for his friends help, but bird eventually helps his understand noone is stealing his leaves…except the wind.
It’s just that time of the year.
At the end of the story, he wakes up and someone stole all the grass (because it snowed the night before.)
Activity: The Leaf Thief
- Read the story to your class.
- Ask them to explain why the other animals WOULD want to steal his leaves. Are they using the leaves?
- Ask students to look at the provided examples of causes and they need to match the effects.
bear wants more…cause and effect
Who doesn’t love bear? He’s the best.
I love Bear Wants More…he’s just waking up from winter nap and he’s hungry!
He is on the hunt for food to stop his tummy from rumbling.
This book lends itself for complex cause and effect maps…and the students won’t even know it’s complex.
Using the 1 cause, 2 effect sheet, students can map the cause and effect. Bear is hungry. What does he do to solve that problem?
Check out the student work above…”Bear is hungry so he eats berries and he eats fish.”
This story is a perfect example of the Complex Anchor Chart.
Activity: Bear’s Adventures
- Read “Bear Wants More.”
- Have them identify the causes and effects in Bear’s adventures.
- Encourage students to discuss how Bear’s actions affect the other characters and events in the story.
- Are there other animals that are demonstarting cause and effect?
These books provide rich opportunities for discussion, hands-on activities, and storytelling that help young learners grasp this essential reading comprehension skill.
By incorporating these mentor texts into your lessons, you’ll not only make learning enjoyable but also set the foundation for strong literacy skills.
If you’d like Cause and Effect activities, I have the perfect set for you.
This set has everything you need (except the books) to teach your whole group and provide small group and independent centers.
I also have more ideas for teaching cause and effect in another post, check out TRIED AND TRUE IDEAS FOR TEACHING CAUSE AND EFFECT THAT ENGAGE EARLY READERS.
Happy Teaching!
