Personalize cause and effect. Use examples from a student's own life to demonstrate how cause and effect works. Analyze a school musical, for example. Discuss how the way students practice their lines, their songs and their movements (the cause) can directly determine the quality of the performance (the effect).
Talk about who uses cause-and-effect analysis. Identify different professions -- crime scene detectives, historians and journalists, for example -- that require the use of cause and effect. Talk about how each professional utilizes an understanding of this concept to perform the job.
Spend a full class period asking, "Why?" Get students involved using independent cause-and-effect analysis. Encourage students to ask "why" something happens. Question students, for example, on why the classroom is hot or cold or why lunch is scheduled at a certain time of day. Have children identify what causes these issues and what are the effects.
Teach the vocabulary of cause and effect. Introduce words such as consequence, action and result. Apply the words to cause-and-effect concepts and examples. Ask students to use these terms when describing cause-and-effect matters as a means of building their own vocabulary. Use worksheets and textbooks to assist with learning needs.
Demonstrate cause and effect. Line up a row of dominoes. Push the first domino and watch the others fall. Ask students to explain the cause and effect of this experiment. Have students create landing devices for eggs. In other words, challenge students to invent a device that will keep an egg from breaking if dropped from an elevated position. The challenge gives kids a hands-on understanding while they use their own skills to solve cause-and-effect questions. Give students different materials -- pillows, tape, string and cotton, for instance -- to create their inventions. Test each device and analyze the causes and effects of each try.