Cause and Effect in Fiction
A third-grade worksheet to help students identify cause and effect relationships in fictional stories.
Includes
Standards
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Cause and Effect in Fiction
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Read each story carefully. Then, identify the cause (why something happened) and the effect (what happened).
Story 1: The Lost Kite
Lily was flying her brand new kite at the park. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew by. The string slipped from her hand, and the kite soared higher and higher until it disappeared behind the tall trees.
1. What was the cause of the kite disappearing?
2. What was the effect of the string slipping from Lily's hand?
Story 2: The Rainy Day
Tom looked out the window. Dark clouds filled the sky, and he heard thunder rumbling. Because of the bad weather, his mom said they couldn't go to the beach. Tom felt sad, so he decided to read his favorite book instead.
3. What caused Tom to feel sad?
He heard thunder.
His mom said they couldn't go to the beach.
He looked out the window.
He decided to read a book.
4. What was the effect of the bad weather?
Tom read his book.
Dark clouds filled the sky.
Tom couldn't go to the beach.
He heard thunder rumbling.
Story 3: The Hungry Squirrel
Sammy the squirrel woke up feeling very hungry. He remembered burying nuts last autumn. So, he quickly scurried outside to find them. After digging for a few minutes, he found a big pile of acorns and had a delicious breakfast.
5. Sammy was hungry, so he .
6. Because Sammy remembered burying nuts, he .
Story 4: The Broken Vase
Maya was playing with her ball inside the house, even though her mom told her not to. The ball bounced high and knocked over a vase on the table. The vase crashed to the floor and broke into many pieces. Maya felt very sorry.
7. True or False: The cause of the vase breaking was Maya playing with her ball inside.
True
False
8. True or False: The effect of the vase breaking was Maya feeling happy.
True
False
Story 5: The Helpful Friend
Ben was trying to build a tall tower with his blocks, but they kept falling over. He felt frustrated and was about to give up. His friend, Sarah, saw he was struggling. She came over and showed him a trick to make the base wider. With Sarah's help, Ben was able to build the tallest tower ever!
9. Explain the cause and effect relationship between Ben's frustration and Sarah's action.