1st grade cause and effect worksheets

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First grade cause and effect worksheets pair short stories and simple science passages of about eighty words with four questions. Your child reads about something that happened, like a snowman melting on a warm day, and answers questions that ask why it happened or what happened because of it. The key gives the answer the passage states.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RI.1.3.

Each click picks one of the 15 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

A Treat on the Step

It was a hot day. Omar got a cherry ice pop. Then his friend Jen called him to play ball. Omar set the ice pop on the step. They played for a long time. When Omar came back, the ice pop was gone! It had…

  1. Why did Omar set the ice pop on the step? Jen called him to play ball · he did not like cherry · the ice pop was too cold

    Answer: Jen called him to play ball

  2. Why did the ice pop melt? it sat in the hot sun · Jen ate some of it · the ants ate it up

Each print picks one of the 15 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 15 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.

What's on a 1st grade sheet

1st grade sheets draw from 15 passages, 76 to 99 words long. None of these passages are on 2nd grade sheets. On 2nd grade sheets they run 129 to 169 words.

Some of the titles: The Block Tower, Rosa's Bean Plant, Trees in the Fall, Bears in the Snow, Leo's Drum, The Dark Shape on the Ground.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Read the passage aloud together, then let your child read it again. Stop at each thing that happens and ask why. The answer is usually a sentence or two earlier. Point out because and so when they show up, but expect some passages to leave them out. When your child picks an answer, ask them to find the sentence that proves it. Wrong choices are often things that really happened in the story but did not cause this one.

Watch for: Kids pick the event that comes first in the SENTENCE as the cause, but writers often name the effect first: 'The game was canceled because of rain.' The word because points to the cause, wherever it sits. Two things happening near each other is not cause and effect. The dog barked and the mail came, but the barking did not deliver the mail. Ask whether one truly made the other happen.

Common questions about 1st grade cause and effect

What is cause and effect in 1st grade?
The cause is why something happened, and the effect is what happened. First graders read a short passage and answer plain questions that start with why, or that ask what happened because of something. Each answer is in the passage, and the key gives it in a few words.
How can I help my first grader with cause and effect?
Ask why questions all day. Why is the grass wet? Why did the ice cube melt? Then flip it around: the ice cube sat in the sun, so what happened? Saying because and so out loud helps children hear the link before they look for it on the page.

Related worksheets

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Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 15.

Aligned to Common Core RI.1.3. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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