Read a picture book to the children to teach them how to draw conclusions from a story. Choose a book where they can make predictions and conclusions from the narrative and the pictures, such as "Do you Want to be My Friend" by Eric Carle or "Corduroy" by Don Freeman. Read one page at a time and then stop to ask the children to draw a conclusion from the reading. Then read the next section to see if their conclusions were correct.
Read one of Aesop's fables, such as "The Grasshopper and the Owl." Start by reading the first four lines, where there is a description of sounds. Ask the children to draw a conclusion of who is making the sound. Older children can read the rest of the story or read it to your early readers. Questions for the children to draw conclusions would be "What does the owl do before bed? and How does the owl feel about the singing?"
Elementary children are old enough to appreciate mystery books and stories. These stories have clues and some kind of detective work that needs solving, which is ideal for teaching children how to draw conclusions from a story. Books that would work for this activity include, "The Missing Mitten Mystery" by Steven Kellogg or "The Boxcar Children" by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Younger children should be read in sections, while older children can read on their own. Assign chapters to older students and discuss their conclusions.
Create game cards where children must draw conclusions from a a few sentences of a narrative. On 3-by-5-inch index cards, write a short narrative, such as "Ellen was in a tree. She could not get back down. Ellen called her father. Soon she was in the house." Ask children questions about the sentences or provide multiple choice answers, such as A. Ellen helped her father. A. Ellen's father helped her."