Cause and Effect Words in Science

3rd Grade20 minutesNGSS

Learning Objective

I can identify words that show cause and effect in science texts.

Key Concepts

A cause happens first and tells us why something happened, while an effect happens after the cause and tells us what happened.

Cause and effect signal words, such as so, because, and due to, can help you spot cause and effect relationships in books.

When identifying cause and effect, the cause answers the question 'Why did this happen?' and the effect answers the question 'What happened?'.

Practice Questions

This lesson includes 3 practice questions to reinforce learning.

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1. Which of these words or phrases often signals a cause-and-effect relationship in a sentence?

2. Read the sentence: 'The dog barked loudly, so the cat ran away.' Identify the cause and the effect in this sentence.

3. Rewrite the following two sentences as a single sentence that clearly shows the cause and effect relationship using the signal word 'since': 'It was raining heavily. The soccer game was cancelled.'

Educational Video

Cause and Effect | Reading Strategies | EasyTeaching

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