Cause and effect preschool activities: What Activities Might Encourage Cause & Effect for Toddlers?

18 Cause-and-Effect Lesson Plans You’ll Love

Why did the dog run away? Because the owner left the gate open. The boy cried because he fell off his bike. Cause and effect can be a challenging concept for kids. While it may seem intuitive to adults, understanding why an action happened can be difficult for students to understand and communicate. But don’t worry, we’ve got you. Here are 18 cause-and-effect lesson plans and starter ideas that are simple but effective to help your students master this reading concept.

1. Make an anchor chart.

As you introduce cause and effect, an anchor chart can help reinforce the concept. They’re great to refer back to when reviewing and are helpful for kids to look at when working independently.

One thing to emphasize is that the cause is why something happened. The cause always happens first, even if it isn’t mentioned first. The effect is what happened, and it occurs after the cause.

2. Show concrete examples.

Gather a few items to use as cause-and-effect examples ahead of time. You could push a row of dominoes, turn a light switch on, pop a balloon, roll a ball, drop a Hot Wheel car down a ramp, and so on. As you (or, even better, a student) demonstrate these examples, ask your kids the cause and the effect for each.

3. Discuss real-life examples.

Give your class real scenarios and ask what would happen. You might say, If you left an ice cube on the hot sidewalk during the summer, what would happen? Then have students determine the cause and effect.

Continue asking similar questions, using the same frame of if (the cause) and what (the effect). For example, if you ate too much candy at one time, what would happen? If you practiced playing the piano every day, what would happen? If you never brushed your teeth, what would happen? To add some fun, you might even make it silly. Maybe, If an elephant jumped into a tiny pool, what would happen? Or If you saw an alien, what would happen?

4.

Act out with role-play.

Prepare slips of paper ahead of time with ideas for students to act out. Tell the kids that they may make sound effects but may not use words. You can call for volunteers right away or, better yet, put the actors into small groups and give them five to 10 minutes to practice before showing the class.

The situations you include could be: You’re playing baseball, and a window breaks. You’re blowing a big chewing gum bubble, and it pops on your face. A football team makes a touchdown and the crowd cheers. You jump on the bed and get scolded. You fall down while ice skating and break your arm. You run fast and earn a trophy. And so on. After every scenario is performed, the class can identify the cause and the effect.

5. Match

 sentence strips.

Ahead of time, write causes on sentence strips and matching effects on other sentence strips. Make sure there are enough for your whole class. Pass out a sentence strip to each child with either a cause or an effect.

When you say “go,” have the kids walk around until they find a match. When they’re done, they can quickly share out their answers. This cause-and-effect lesson is a great way to get kids out of their seats and moving.

6. Create a paper chain.

Source: Teaching with a Mountain View

Similar to the sentence matching strips, write causes and effects on separate pieces of foldable paper to hand out to the class. Students can then create a paper chain where they loop together a cause and an effect, incorporating a fun and artsy element to keep them engaged in the lesson. Students can either work in pairs, alone, or have to swap papers and work together to find the correct causes and effects.

7. Play cause-and-effect cards in pairs.

Cut three- by four-inch cards from two different colors of construction paper. Once kids are in pairs, give each child two cards of each color. One color is for the causes (write a “C” on the back of these to help kids remember), and the other color cards are for the effects (write an “E” on the back of these).

Next, the pairs work together to come up with four different cause-and-effect events to record on their cards. For example, on one cause card, it might say: The mother bird sat on her nest. The effect card that matches it might say: The baby birds hatched out of their eggs. Or cause: It started to rain. Effect: We took out our umbrellas. Once the pair has finished their cards, they mix them up, place them in an envelope, and write their names on the front.

The next day, set the envelopes around the room, like you’re having a scavenger hunt, and have pairs travel around the room with their partners to open envelopes, match causes and effects, mix the cards back up, put them back in the envelope, and move to the next open set. An alternative is to use the envelopes as a cause-and-effect center.

8. Produce flipbooks.

These little books can be used in cause-and-effect lesson plans and much more! You might want to prep them for little ones, but older kids can usually make their own. Fold a nine- by 12-inch paper lengthwise (hot dog style). Keep it folded and use a ruler to mark off the three-, six-, and 9-inch spots near the top and bottom.

Draw a line from the top to the bottom at each marked spot. Unfold the page and cut on the three lines from the bottom to the fold. Once the flipbook is created, kids draw four causes on the front and then lift each flap and draw four effects underneath. Need enrichment for higher-level kids? Have them draw or write several effects for each cause!

9. Fill out Mad Libs.

Use fill-in-the-blank worksheets where the blank spaces are either the cause or effect of an action. Students can make up their own story while determining the cause and effect of their creation. See these downloadable Mad Lib worksheets to get started.

10.

 Make cause-and-effect pictures.

Take 9×12 construction paper (landscape format) and have kids fold it in half and then unfold it. Write “Cause” at the top of the left side and “Effect” at the top of the right side. Kids use crayons, markers, Sharpies, or watercolors to create a picture that shows a cause-and-effect relationship.

11. Create cause-and-effect cards.

Similar to the above cause-and-effect lesson plan, but instead of unfolding the paper, just leave it folded like a greeting card. I actually like to make the cards fairly small, then they can be grouped together in a little cause-and-effect museum for a fun display. The cards just have to be big enough that the kids can draw or write on them.

12. Use nursery rhymes.

Source: Rockin Resources

Provide nursery rhymes for students to pick out cause and effect scenarios from. Maybe a familiar story will help them identify the concept. Whether it’s a familiar tale or a new story, the simple layout of nursery rhymes serves as a great starting point to recognizing cause and effect.

13. Use pictures for students to infer cause and effect.

This cause-and-effect lesson plan could be done after kids have mastered the basics. Gather some interesting pictures from classroom magazines (Scholastic, Weekly Reader, etc.) and regular magazines, or find them online on free-to-use sites like Pixabay. Look for pictures that have a lot going on in them because kids are going to be looking for several causes and effects, not just one. I would suggest NOT letting the kids search for pictures. Not everything is classroom friendly, and even if it were, it could be a distraction.

Glue the picture to the top of a piece of construction paper (portrait format) or a piece of chart paper. Underneath the picture, divide the space in half and write “Cause” at the top of the left side and “Effect” at the top of the right side. Kids brainstorm and write down lots of different causes and effects for the same picture by looking at it in many ways.

14. Try a graphic organizer.

For this activity, find pictures as before, but this time, glue the picture to the center of the paper. Write “Cause” above the picture, as well as a word or two explaining the cause. Then kids draw arrows away from the picture and write possible effects.

For example, if the picture is of a sunny beach, the cause is the hot sun. Some possible effects might be that the sand is hot, people get sunburned, kids jump in the water to cool off, people sit under umbrellas to stay cool, people put on sunscreen, and so on.

Another day, use different pictures and repeat the activity but switch it so the word “Effect” is above the picture, as well as a word or two explaining the effect. The arrows this time point toward the effect and demonstrate causes. For example, if the picture was of spilled milk, the effect is the milk spilled. The causes might be a cat bumped into it, a baby tried to drink from it, it was too close to the edge of the table, a mom poured too much by mistake, kids were playing ball in the house, and the ball hit it, etc.

15. Read a picture book or two.

There are several great picture books, such as If You Swallow a Mouse, that demonstrate cause and effect well. Some of them are a bit outlandish, but kids will enjoy and find memorable the wild scenarios. Here’s a great list to get you started. The Children’s Library Lady has also recommended several good picture books as well as resources for lessons on cause and effect.

16. Teach students to locate clues.

Teach upper elementary students that certain words, like because, since, due to, and if … then, or words that help sequence events, like first and then, are signals that can help them find the cause or effect as they read. Use this handout to help them and then have them practice by making up their own cause-and-effect sentences or by doing a version of the sentence-strips activity outlined above.

17. Play a game.

Games are always a great way to reinforce lessons. As an added bonus, games can be played independently. When a student or two finishes early or has some free time, have them test their mastery of cause and effect by having them play free online games that will both challenge them and reiterate what you taught. Ice cream lovers in your class? Have them “scoop” the cause (the ice cream) and put in on the effect (the cone) with this game. Or, put students in teams and have them test their mettle in this game of cause-and-effect Jeopardy!.

18. Experiment!

Perhaps nothing exemplifies cause and effect better than an experiment. Come up with a list of quick, simple experiments to do, such as putting lots of air in a balloon or putting pennies on the wings of a paper airplane. Then, as a class or in small groups, work together to come up with a simple hypothesis, using the words highlighted above. For example: The plant will grow because we watered it consistently. Or: If we mix the colors yellow and blue, then we will make green. Help students see that the setup of the experiment is the cause and what happens (the result) is the effect.

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20 Cause and Effect Activities Students Will Love

March 28, 2022 //  by Stephanie Ledford

If you leave the door open, the cat will get out. If you eat all of your dinner, you can have dessert. We use cause and effect language all of the time with our children, so we assume they just know what it means. But the truth of the matter is it is something we need to teach them. Use the activities listed below, and they will soon be cause and effect pros!

1. Cause and Effect Anchor Chart

Introduce the idea of cause and effect with an anchor chart. Listing keywords–like “because” or “since”– helps teach reading for meaning, as students will search for these words to find areas cause and effect is being used within every story you read.

Learn more: Nicole Marshall

2. Teaching Cause and Effect Using A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

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Why doesn’t Camilla Cream eat lima beans even though she loves them? Because nobody else in her school likes them! Read this book with multiple examples of cause and effect to reinforce this important reading concept. By the end of the reading, they will all be cause and effect experts!

3. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (by Laura Numeroff) Lesson 

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If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk…the mouse’s demands never stop! Teach students that all of their actions (cause) have an outcome (effect) by reading one of children’s favorite books.

4. Room Recess: Digital Activity

Teach this essential reading skill using this cute cause and effect game where students put ice cream onto the correct cones. Have them race against the clock to see how many they can get right before time runs out.

Learn more: Room Recess.com

5. For the Birds Lesson

Use the link above to go to a short video on YouTube. This cute, three-minute video has multiple examples of cause and effect. What causes the power line to go down? What makes the little birds lose all of their feathers? Watch the video to find out!

Learn more: Irina Siman

6. Cause and Effect Jeopardy

Targeted at upper elementary grades, this interactive game will engage all students. Break out the classroom devices, break the class into teams, and let them all test their knowledge of cause and effect with this fun game.

Learn more: Jeopardy Labs

7. Cause and Effect Matching Game

Looking for hands-on activities for teaching cause and effect? Cut up these strips of simple sentences and have students match each cause and effect.

Learn more: Florida Center for Reading Research

8. Bowled Over Graphic Organizer

As you go over a reading passage with your class, have students fill in this graphic organizer about different cause and effect relationships within the story. After, ask them how changing one cause would make there be a different effect. This can be used at all different reading levels and is a great post-reading activity.

Learn more: The Mailbox

9. Reading Raiders

If you are looking for internet activities for cause and effect, look no further than this game that gives them lots of practice matching causes with their effects to save their kingdoms.

Learn more: Room Recess.com

10. Cause and Effect Task Cards

A good way to get students up and moving around the classroom is with task cards. Partner them up and have them walk around the room answering the questions on the different task cards. Remind them to look at the class anchor chart if they need help.

Learn more: Teaching Made Practical

11. Signal Words with When I Grow Up by Peter Horn

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After teaching children cause and effect signal words, read When I Grow Up to them and have them identify each time the author uses each signal word. An extension activity would be to then use these signal words to write cause and effect sentences as a class.

12. Interactive Anchor Chart

Make your anchor chart interactive by giving students sticky notes and having them write their own effects to given causes. They will delight in seeing how many different effects they can create for each cause.

Learn more: Sarah Gillam

13. Reading Lessons: No, David! by David Shannon

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This fun picture book offers plenty of opportunities for students to point out causes– David’s actions– with their effects– him being told “No, David!” on a regular basis! Younger elementary students will delight in and relate to this charming book.

14. Cause and Effect Charades

Students love creative activities. Use the video above as inspiration to create your own game of cause and effect charades for your class! It is great practice for students while being fun at the same time!

Learn more: Stephanie McCoy

15. Cause and Effect Song

The cool thing about songs is they can reach a wide range of students, regardless of their skill levels. Use the song in this video to teach the complex skill of cause and effect to your students. Students will be singing the song all day.

Learn more: Kristina Hamilton

16. Alice in Wonderland Worksheet

One of the best comprehension strategies there is is teaching students how to identify cause and effect. As you read through Alice in Wonderland as a class, give them worksheets like the one in the link for them to recognize the relationships between the causes and effects of the characters’ actions.

Learn more: K12 Reader

17. Cause and Effect Scoot Game

This site offers multiple practical activities to teach cause and effect, like this “scoot game” where students move from one station to another answering cause and effect questions on these paragraph task cards.

Learn more: Foreman Teaches

18. Cause and Effects Tutorial

This classroom-friendly cartoon introduces cause and effect and gives multiple examples to help children understand. You can also use this video if some students are still struggling with the concept after you have introduced it to the whole class.

Learn more: Story Bag

19. Everyday Lives and Cause and Effect

Use the real-life examples on this site to teach students that cause and effect relationships are around us every day. Why did the light switch come on? Because you flipped the switch. An extension activity could be to have students write down cause and effect events from their daily life. This will teach them to recognize the connection between events.

Learn more: Your Dictionary

20. Cause and Effect Board Game

Follow the link below to be inspired to either create your own cause and effect board game or be taken to another link to purchase a premade game. This game gives students ample opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of cause and effect.

Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers

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Category: Classroom Ideas

90,000 Memo for parents on “forming the ability to establish causal relationships among preschool children”

“Formation of the ability to establish causal relationships”

causal relationship -the relationship between the phenomena, in which one phenomenon is the cause, under certain conditions it gives rise to another phenomenon – the effect. nine0011

The requirements of the GEF DO for the results of mastering the Program indicate
social and normative age characteristics of the possible achievements of
children at the stage of completion of the preschool education level: “. .. the child
shows curiosity, asks questions to adults and peers , tries to independently
come up with explanations for natural phenomena and people’s actions; inclined
to observe, experiment”

The essence of the concept “ cause-and-effect relationships ” was briefly and concisely characterized in his statement by J. Fabre: “It is natural for the mind to reflect, to realize,
that is, to connect causes and effects, to give an answer to the question “why” , reveal the accidental, discover the regular, establish the consistency of new properties with new conditions, find the beginning and end in the chain of what is happening.

We are all familiar with the concept of cause-and-effect relationships: put your hand into the hot – burned yourself, stepped on a rake – they hit you on the forehead. Cause-and-effect relationships are encountered at every step. nine0005

In the process of learning activity, the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships goes through several stages. Initially, logical thinking acts as a subject of special assimilation, then as a means of establishing connections between objects and phenomena, and finally, as part of the skills that a preschooler must master for successful intellectual development.

Causal relationships are inextricably linked with time.
Changes in the world of animals and plants arise on the basis of
their interaction with the conditions of life. Questions “Why?” and “What follows from
?” encourage children to establish the cause and effect
.

The structure of the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships:

1) highlight properties in objects;

2) have an understanding of the general and distinctive features of objects;

3) identify essential and non-essential features in objects;

4) distinguish between necessary and sufficient attributes of objects;

5) establish genus-species relationships; nine0005

6) perform simple inferences.

Thus, the ability to establish causal relationships is a complex, integrative process of cognition of reality through the construction of reasoning and inference based on a number of logical operations (analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, generalization).

For the effective development of research skills, the teacher must create the necessary conditions, including a positive emotional atmosphere, purposefulness, creating a situation of success, which will give confidence to each student in successfully solving complex learning problems. nine0005

Formation of mental operations of a cause-and-effect nature in a small child must begin at the age of 2-2.5 years. This process is complex. A positive result cannot be expected if game exercises are carried out on a case-by-case basis. To form the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships of objects and phenomena, a systematic approach is needed.

The main form of work is games and game exercises, which can be included both in the lesson summary and in the process of game activity. In the course of work, a gradual complication of skills is provided. nine0005

JUNIOR PRESCHOOL AGE

A younger preschooler is able to see and understand the cause and effect of basically real events that are perceived by the child in a given period of time. This circumstance dictated the central task in working with children of primary preschool age – to form the ability to notice changes in the state of an object when it interacts with others, to develop the ability to understand and explain direct and reverse causal relationships and relationships. nine0005

The development in children of the ability to understand the causes and consequences of changes in objects and phenomena is based on the possession of the action of analysis and synthesis and the ability to compare objects with each other, i.e. the formation in children of the ability to see the causes of changes in surrounding objects necessarily involves the development of the ability to single out their properties, compare, compare, designate signs with an exact word.

To strengthen children’s ability to establish causal relationships in natural phenomena and explain them, the game “When does this happen?” can be used. However, the emphasis in it should not be on consolidating knowledge about the seasons, but on finding the relationship between the seasons and changes in nature and explaining it to children. nine0005

Children can also develop the ability to understand the sequence of events during the game “Put the pictures in order”. For the game, the teacher selects several (two or three) pictures with a simple, sequentially developing plot, for example, a girl dresses for a walk, sledding down a hill, falling off a sled. Pictures are mixed up. Children, together with the teacher, restore the sequence of events. They explain why it is impossible to ride down a hill before getting dressed for a walk, or why a girl cannot fall off a sled before going out for a walk. Instead of pictures for such games, you can take other materials. For example, the teacher shows the child pictures that show balls of different sizes, and offers him the game task “Inflate the balloon”. The child needs to put the pictures in order (from the smallest ball to the largest) and explain why he did it that way. Another time, you can use the same pictures, but formulate the game task in a different way: “Air gradually comes out of the ball.” nine0005

Children really like it when they help an adult correct a mistake he has made. This technique can also be successfully used in the process of developing in children the ability to establish the causes and consequences of actions. So, having interested the child in the game “Close the window” (geometric shapes), the teacher deliberately uses an erroneous option and asks the child to explain why the round window is not closed tightly with a triangle. In case of difficulty, the teacher tells the child the reason for the failure. nine0005

To develop the ability to determine cause-and-effect relationships, you can widely use various fairy tales, stories, verses-questions of the educator aimed at finding out the cause of what happened (“Why did the bunny get wet? Why couldn’t grandfather pull a turnip out of the ground?”, etc. ) what happened first and what happened later, what changed and why, etc.

It is very important to enrich the child’s sensory experience by organizing various forms of practical activity: experiments, experimentation, direct interaction with objects of the surrounding world. nine0005

To understand the relationship and connection between phenomena, events, objects, certain experience is needed. At a younger preschool age, a child, being involved in various situations of activity, communication and interaction with others, gradually accumulates the experience of ideas about the causes of events and phenomena. Therefore, at first, the educator actively helps the children explain some obvious relationships between objects and phenomena: the night has come – it’s time for the dolls to sleep; it’s cold outside – you need to dress warmer; the bear is sick – you need to see a doctor and treat him. nine0005

The intellectual development of children is largely due to their individual characteristics. The mastery of cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies proceeds in each child along an individual path. This is connected not only with the individual characteristics of children, but also with the content and nature of their personal experience – knowledge, ideas and ways of interacting with the surrounding world of objects and phenomena. Some children have difficulty grasping relationships and interdependencies. Partially, the task of removing the difficulty is solved in the process of forming in children the actions of analysis and synthesis and comparison. Therefore, individual work with an individual child is aimed primarily at assisting him in mastering the ability to isolate and name the signs of objects and phenomena and compare them with each other. nine0005

For a more successful mastery of the mental action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships, the educator suggests that the child first understand simple relationships. For example, an adult, helping to equip a room for dolls and animals, finds out what chairs, armchairs, sofas, tables should be placed in the room so that everyone can sit and relax comfortably. The teacher encourages the child to choose the appropriate furniture and teaches him to argue: “The bear is big – he needs a big chair, and the bunny will put a smaller chair, because he himself is small”, etc.

It is important for the educator to determine whether the child understands external dependencies, and only after that create conditions for further progress. If the child confidently determines the causes and consequences of changing the state of objects, you can invite him to make the simplest prediction: “Why do you think the dog in the picture is barking?” Another time, the teacher asks for help to understand the pictures: to find what is drawn incorrectly in them, how it should be and why. Simple, understandable pictures are used. nine0005

The action of determining cause-and-effect relationships and relationships is considered mastered by the children of the second younger group if they, on their own or with the help of an adult, can establish direct and feedback relationships between objects; they are able to reason elementarily, to express a judgment about the causes and consequences of ongoing changes in perceived objects and phenomena.

AVERAGE PRESCHOOL AGE

In the middle group, children’s skills are consolidated to identify and explain cause-and-effect relationships between externally expressed changes in perceived objects, draw conclusions and explain them. Due to the fact that a child of 4-5 years old already has a sufficient amount of ideas on the basis of which he is able to solve specific problems, including determining the causes of events, in the middle preschool age it is possible to form in children the ability to detect and explain hidden cause-and-effect connections. nine0005

In the process of organizing various types of cognitive activities – excursions, nature observations, conversations, reading – the educator not only enriches their knowledge, but also actively involves them in identifying connections between objects, helps to understand that interconnected changes are constantly taking place in the world around them.

Watching the rain, the children see how the sand gradually darkens, and puddles form on the asphalt path. The teacher discusses with the children why there are no puddles on the sand, a flower bed. Children remember how easily they stick a stick into the sand and earth, because they are loose and soft, so rainwater is absorbed, and the asphalt is hard, and the water stays on top, forming puddles. nine0005

Or, for example, after reading the fairy tale “Three Bears”, the teacher asks the question: “Why do you think Masha managed to escape from the bears?” The children make assumptions: “Because Masha knew how to run fast”, “The bears were very surprised and couldn’t even move from surprise”, etc. The teacher helps the children remember a fairy tale in which it is written that the window in the house of the bears was small, and Masha was small. The children give an answer adequate to the content of the fairy tale: “Masha was small and dexterous, so she managed to quickly jump out of the house after a small window and run away, and the bears got stuck in it because they are big. ”

The teacher uses ready-made riddles or invents them if he considers it necessary to clarify the children’s understanding of the relationship of objects or phenomena. Of course, each clue is subject to explanation, the teacher is interested in how the child found the answer, why it corresponds to this riddle. Trying to find a clue, children at the verbal (verbal) level establish connections between various characteristics of an object or phenomenon. nine0005

An effective technique for developing children’s ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships is the analysis of confusion games that are available in various teaching aids, magazines, educational literature for children.

The most important characteristic of causal relationships is temporal sequence. The task of the educator is to help the child realize it.

Children know from their own experience that there is a certain sequence in the change of seasons. The educator explains to them in an accessible form why this is happening. In winter, nature rests (sleeps), wakes up and comes to life in spring, blossoms and bears fruit in summer, gives its fruits and again prepares for rest in autumn. It is important that children 4-5 years old accurately associate the season with characteristic natural phenomena and people’s activities. This can be done during observations, when reading books, looking at illustrations and reinforce during games like “Does it happen or not?” etc.

Children learn to build chains of relationships through special exercises. For example:

♦ “What are the mittens for?” “So that your hands don’t freeze.”

♦ “Why don’t my mittened hands get cold?” “Because the mittens are warm.”

♦ “Why are they warm?” “Because they are knitted from wool.”

Another form of work to develop children’s ability to build chains of relationships is to recreate the logic of the plot from a series of pictures “What first, what next?”. nine0005

It is difficult for a child of middle preschool age to determine and name the possible reasons for a change in an object, to express a judgment on this matter, to draw a conclusion. Therefore, in addition to the fact that the educator constantly draws the child’s attention to various relationships in the world around him, explains them, he teaches the child to see, find interdependencies of various kinds and, through reasoning, come to a conclusion about their nature.

The action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships is considered to be mastered by children of the middle group if they, on their own or with a little help from an adult, establish outwardly expressed direct and feedback relationships, explain hidden relationships, are able to determine and explain the causes and consequences of any phenomena on the basis of reasoning and conclusions. . This mental action develops at the age of 4-5 years, mainly in materialized and external speech forms. nine0005

SENIOR PRESCHOOL AGE

At the senior preschool age, children are already quite good at analyzing, comparing, generalizing, classifying objects and phenomena, i.e. the foundations for mastering the action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies have been formed at a higher level than at previous age stages of preschool childhood.

The educator uses real opportunities and specially creates situations through which he teaches the child to make assumptions based on his knowledge of the properties of materials, the essence of phenomena, helping him to reason based on them. nine0005

A 5-7-year-old child has a sufficient amount of ideas about the world around him and can operate with the information he has, it is quite easy to establish direct and feedback links between objects and phenomena that are familiar to him. Therefore, the educator can form in children the ability to transfer the mastered steps of the mental action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and relationships between some objects to other objects and phenomena.

Since causal relationships are encountered at every step, the possibilities for their “discovery” by the child are endless. It is very important that he, mastering the world around him, be aware of what is happening around him and why. Only understanding what is happening, thinking about the phenomena and their own actions, the child learns to control them. Sociocultural experience is mastered, the arbitrariness of mental activity develops, i.e. higher mental functions are formed (L.S. Vygotsky). nine0005

The task of an adult is to help the child in mastering cultural experience, to create conditions for the formation of a picture of the world. The easiest way to solve this problem is to reason with the child, to ask questions that help him to realize immediate events and phenomena.

Word games such as “Finish the sentence” can also be widely used with older preschool children, during which children learn to understand and explain cause-and-effect relationships. First, the role of the leader is played by the educator. He says the beginning of a sentence with different allied words, which the children need to continue: “I put a pan on the stove so that . ..”, “The children were very tired because …”, “The toy broke because …”, “Sasha and Masha quarreled because …”, etc. Sometimes you should exercise children in establishing a direct relationship: “It was hot weather, so …”. In the future, you can invite children to come up with unfinished sentences on their own. nine0005

The action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and relationships is considered mastered by children of senior preschool age, if they independently (or with little help from an adult) establish and explain direct and reverse visually presented and hidden relationships, using existing experience; able to predict the possible consequences of an action; own methods of modeling changes in objects and events. Mental action is mastered, as a rule, at the level of external and internal speech. nine0005

Cause-and-effect games

Why did this happen?

Have your child name as many reasons as possible for the following situations:

• There were a lot of people standing outside.

• The children stood with their mouths open in amazement.

• The water in the cup is cloudy.

• The lights in the room suddenly went out.

• The birdsong suddenly stopped.

• Mom opened the door to the room and gasped. nine0005

Try to come up with both ordinary and most improbable explanations for situations. For example: mom might be surprised to see a gift on the table or a broken cup, or maybe Carlson sitting on the windowsill.

Game “What can happen if…”

• If you put ice on your palm, then… .

• If a bear grows wings, then … .

• If you fly high, high, then … .

• If you eat a lot of ice cream, then … .

• If it snows in summer, then … . nine0005

Turn on your fantasy: if you throw away a piece of bread, then birds can eat it, it can fall on someone’s head, it will be carried by the wind to a magical land and the piece of bread will turn into an edible house.

Game “Continue the sentences”

• The girl laughed merrily because … .

• If a holiday comes, then … .

• The dog wandered sadly down the street, although… .

• Water has dripped into the hot frying pan … .

• We left and forgot to water the flowers… . nine0005

• The hungry wolf saw the pie… .

• Dad turned on the faucet … .

• Kolya fell into a hole because … .

• Birds began to gather in warmer climes because … .

Find the connection game

Invite the child to find a connection between two sentences that at first glance have nothing in common. Explain how everything happened. For example:

The cone fell from the tree.

The bus did not arrive on time.

The squirrel was sitting on a tree and missed a bump. At this time, a bunny was sitting under a tree, on which a cone fell. With a fright, the coward rushed to run, jumped out onto the road. The children sitting on the bus ran out to look at the hare and dispersed. The driver waited for them for a long time and therefore the bus did not arrive at the station on time. nine0005

Incredible Fantasy Game

• What would happen if it was winter all year round?

• What happens if fish fly?

• What happens if a person is as tall as a house?

• What happens if ants become the size of an elephant?

Understanding the Purpose Game

• Why does every person need a name?

• What are traffic lights for on the streets?

• Why do we need a stove?

• Why does the hedgehog have needles? nine0005

• What can you do if you get lost?

Game “Composition of objects and phenomena”

• What do birds build their nests from?

• What should I bring with me on a fishing trip?

• How does it rain?

• What can I give a dog for his birthday?

• How to distinguish a living object from an inanimate one?

Why did this happen?

Ask the child to name as many reasons as possible for the following situations:

• There were many people in the street.

• The children stood with their mouths open in amazement.

• The water in the cup is cloudy.

• The lights in the room suddenly went out.

• The birdsong suddenly stopped.

• Mom opened the door to the room and gasped.

Cause-and-effect relationships for toddlers – ONLINE preschooler

Greetings, dear parents!

There is nothing random in the world, in it every event is connected by a cause and effect relationship. We are all familiar with the concept of cause-and-effect relationships: put your hand in hot – burned yourself, stepped on a rake – they hit you on the forehead. Cause-and-effect relationships are encountered at every step. nine0005

Causal relationship – a relationship between phenomena, in which one phenomenon, which is the cause, under certain conditions, gives rise to another phenomenon – the effect.

A child of 5-7 years old has a sufficient amount of ideas about the world around him and can operate with the information he has, it is quite easy to establish direct and feedback links between objects and phenomena that are familiar to him.

At senior preschool age, children are already quite good at analyzing, comparing, generalizing, classifying objects and phenomena, i.e. the foundations for mastering the action of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies have been formed at a higher level than at previous age stages of preschool childhood. nine0005

We offer you games aimed at developing cause-and-effect relationships in a child of 5-7 years old.

Why did this happen?

Ask the child to name as many reasons as possible for the following situations:
• There were a lot of people standing outside.
• The children stood with their mouths open in amazement.
• The water in the cup is cloudy.
• The lights in the room suddenly went out.
• Birdsong suddenly stopped.
• Mom opened the door to the room and gasped. nine0019 Try to come up with both ordinary and the most improbable explanations for situations. For example: mom might be surprised to see a gift on the table or a broken cup, or maybe Carlson sitting on the windowsill.

Game “What can happen if…”
• If you put ice on your palm, then… .
• If a bear grows wings, then … .
• If you fly high, high, then … .
• If you eat a lot of ice cream, then … .
• If it snows in summer, then … . nine0019 Connect your fantasy: if you throw away a piece of bread, then birds can eat it, it can fall on someone’s head, it will be carried by the wind to a magical land and the piece of bread will turn into an edible house.

Game “Which is harder?”

In this game you will need to figure out which items are heavier than others and which are lighter.

It’s good for adults, they understand that a book weighs more than a pencil, and a table is heavier than a chair. Follow this link and play with your child:

http://igraem.pro/igry-dlya-malyshej/chto-tyazhelee/

Find the connection game

Invite the child to find a connection between two sentences that at first glance have nothing in common. Explain how everything happened.

For example:
The cone has fallen from the tree. – The bus didn’t come on time.
The squirrel was sitting on a tree and missed a bump. At this time, a bunny was sitting under a tree, on which a cone fell. With a fright, the coward rushed to run, jumped out onto the road. The children sitting on the bus ran out to look at the hare and dispersed. The driver waited for them for a long time and therefore the bus did not arrive at the station on time. nine0005

These are the suggestions that can be offered to the child:

• The kitten went to the saucer. The boy didn’t learn his lessons.
• Water was turned off in the morning. – Dad was late for work.
• The janitor was cleaning the path from snow all day. – Mom was late for work.
• All passers-by got wet. – Finally, the first primroses came out of the ground.
• Mom bought a delicious watermelon. – Dad, finally changed the wheel on the car.