Divide the class into two equal groups and ask a student from group one to write a cause on the board. For example: Pete ate two pints of ice-cream. A student from group two will finish the sentence with the effect. For example: therefore, he could not eat his dinner.
Repeat this activity by swapping the groups. The second time around, the second group will write the cause and the first group will write the effect. The teacher will direct discussion after each sentence is written, asking the class if the sentence makes sense. If not, why not?
Measure and draw lines on a blank piece of paper, making an equal number of squares for writing part of a sentence. Make enough copies for each student, using construction paper. Divide the class into two equal groups. One group will write causes on each of the squares on the paper. The other group will write effects on each square of their paper. The students will cut along the lines that separate each square.
The teacher will collect all the squares that have causes, while a student collects the squares with the effects and make two neat stacks of the squares collected and place them side by side on her desk.
A student will be called to select a card from the cause stack and read it to the class. He will then draw a card from the effect stack. After reading the sentence aloud, the class will decide if the sentence makes sense. If it does make sense, the student keeps the two cards and returns to his seat. Another student will be called to select the next cause card and draw from the effect cards. If the sentence does not make sense as read, the cause card is placed back on top of the cause stack and the effect card is placed on the bottom of the effect stack. The student returns to her seat without cards.
At the end of the game, the student with the most cards wins due to luck, not skill. Students will learn this skill due to repetition and by laughing at the silly sentences that did not make sense when read.
Students or the teacher will read a short story aloud. On the board, the teacher will draw a tree with several branches. Each student will be given a copy of the tree as a worksheet. Students will discuss the cause or causes in the story. After reached a consensus, the students will write the cause on the tree. Discuss the effects, then write them on the tree as the students fill in their tree branches. Students will learn through discussion and through reading the cause and effects on the trees.
Divide the class into groups of three or five. Give each group a written scenario. For example, Pete's parents left home to rent a movie for family night. Pete, who is 15, was left in charge of his younger brother and sister. His sister Angie was in her bedroom. Angie was trying to light a candle with matches. The candle was sitting on her nightstand below her bedroom curtains.
Each group will have one sheet of paper with two columns, labeled cause and effect. The group will discuss, agree upon, then write the next most likely event in the scenario under the label cause. Each group will discuss, agree upon, then write the most likely effect or effects for the scenario. For example: Cause -- the bedroom curtains caught fire. Effect -- the fire department was called to put out the fire. Pete's parents came home to see firemen at their home.
Have a member of each group read their scenario to the class and their cause and effect. Ask the class members if they agree. If not, ask what their cause and/or effect would have been for that scenario.
Students will learn cause and effect through development of an unfinished story.
The teacher will type 90 effects on a sheet or sheets of paper. She will cut each effect into a strip, fold it and place it in a basket. Each student will draw an effect, read it to the class, then write a cause for the effect, making a complete sentence, on the board. Make the effects silly, such as "swallowed a bug." "As a result, the entire class had to stand at recess." Therefore, "teacher's name" was an hour late to work. Laughter enhances memory, according to the American Psychological Association: How laughing leads to learning.