Cause and Effect Pictionary

Cause and effect- what a tricky concept for most 3rd graders.  When I first introduced the skill to my class several months ago, I wasn't quite sure how to go about it.  I was all ready to have my class read about the skill in their reading text books when I suddenly had an idea.  Why not get them drawing the concept and try teaching the idea through Pictionary.

Now, I am using the term Pictionary very loosely as I did not actually turn this activity into a game (I am sure it could be done though!).  But, the concept did help my students understand that this was a fast paced activity.  I gave them a time limit of one minute per picture, otherwise we still would be trying to complete this lesson.  :)

On my whiteboard, I drew a fast sketch of a cause.  After allowing my class time to draw the cause, I gave them one minute to sketch the effect or "what happened next."  They had time to share with the class their ideas and then we tried a different one!

I will tell you that my kiddos were definitely beginning to understand this concept.  My classroom is the inclusion room for both English Learners and Special Education- and this activity really helped them to understand the difference.

Eventually, I got even more tricky by giving them a picture of an effect first!

This is a sample of one of my students' notebooks.

We are just now back to reviewing this skill, and it is still looking good!  This time, however, I let my students move around the classroom and put a Post-It note with their picture (or words) on a chart.  It was a great quick check of who retained this information!  Most of them did!

Our (super quick) anchor chart!

Thanks for reading!

-Heidi