Cause and Effect

 First, I lost the month of October and now, I've lost the month of November! I cannot believe it's Black Friday already! 
I have been teaching 11 years, and every year I tell myself that I will not loose the holiday months. But the next thing I know, they are gone. The first 60 days of school just seems to be a blur as everything is happening at once and at neck breaking speed! November was no different...from safety days and drills to parent conferences, and end of quarter assessments, there was no slowing down! 

My county is off this week, I am thankful for the chance to just breathe. I had every intention of getting ahead with lesson plans and station activities, but I have just been too pooped out! I just hit week 29 of my pregnancy, and I feel great. But my body is just a wee bit tired...So instead of getting my creative juices flowing, I've just been nesting around the house.

Today, I have some extra energy, so I am taking advantage of that to share with you my cause & effect lessons from November.

I don't know about you, but there are some things my county will not give us wiggle room on. One of those being following the scope and sequence of the reading textbook. I have to be honest and say I am not in-love with it. I am not a fan of teaching a comprehension skill (1) this week, only to move onto a new one  next week (2), and then back to the first skill (1) the third week. It just makes no sense to me, the kids are just starting to really get it by Friday. But then on Monday, we throw a new one at them. I can hardly keep up, so I feel for my kids! 

With that in mind, I have been trying to find more visual ways to represent each skill so when we are flip-flopping skills around, the visual will hopefully help my kids remember the skill. 

For instance, when I taught visualization, it was all about referring back to the images in the brain. 

This time, I used puzzle pieces to represent the relationship of cause and effect. For the first lesson, I read Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type. After I read the story, I introduced the idea of cause and effect. I provided a few examples and then asked my students to think of others. 

I created a chart with the cause and then we went back through the story to locate the effect.

After a brief review the next day, we played partner match-up. Each student was given a cause or effect card. They had to walk around the room and find the student who had the matching piece. My students loved this. It really had them talking and thinking about whether the cause and effect could match. 

Next, I gave each student a puzzle piece to illustrate the cause or effect. Again, they had to match-up to find the missing piece. 

Throughout the week, we worked on several other activities. One day the added the cause and effect flaps to their interactive reader's notebook. They wrote the definitions on the top and then lifted the paper to draw and write an example of each. 

We also read Giggle, Giggle, Quack. I provided the cause on the chart, and they had to locate the effect using the text. 

Next on the list, was Thump, Quack, Moo. This day, I provided the effect and they had to locate the cause. 

This was a little more challenging for them. It was a great opportunity for them to discuss what was actually in the text and what they thought in their minds. It led to a great lesson on text based evidence. 

For response to this lesson, I gave each student a puzzle piece with the cause and they had to write and illustrate the effect.

Here is a picture of the bulletin board as it began.

Now, when the skill comes back after Thanksgiving break, there are a few more activities we will do. I created a cut and paste match-up. 

 Also, a quick assessment with a cause and effect matching sheet.

I am still working on the next set of books we will focus on for cause and effect. I know I will be using The Rain Came Down for the first lesson.

 

You can find Cause & Effect in my TPT store here...