What are signal words, and do the passages use them?

Words like because, so, and since that announce a link. Some passages use them; others let the chain speak for itself, so your child cannot lean on the words alone.

Are the passages fiction or nonfiction?

Both, in roughly equal measure. Story causes (a shortcut through a hedge) and science causes (sunlight drying a puddle) are the same thinking in two costumes.

3rd grade cause and effect

3rd grade cause and effect worksheets

Third grade cause and effect passages carry longer chains: one open gate leads to a goat, a garden, and a lost afternoon. Questions ask for causes, for effects, and for the links between them, and the wrong choices are true details that are NOT the cause, so real reading is required.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RI.3.3, RI.3.8.

Each click picks one of the 26 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.

The Puddle at the Bus Stop

Every morning, Marcus and his little sister Pia waited for the bus at the corner of Oak Street. That fall, they also waited next to a lake. The lake was really a puddle, but it was the biggest puddle anyone on Oak Street had ever…

Why did the puddle never drain? wet leaves had packed the drain's grate · the bus tires pushed water into it · the maple's big roots had cracked the road · the city had closed the drain
Answer: wet leaves had packed the drain's grate
Why did Pia wear the nurse's spare socks? the bus's wave soaked her sneakers · she stepped into the storm drain · she forgot her socks at home · Marcus splashed her by mistake

Each print picks one of the 26 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 26 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 3rd grade sheet

3rd grade sheets draw from 26 passages, 129 to 289 words long. All 13 of 2nd grade's passages are here too, plus 13 more. On 2nd grade sheets they run 129 to 169 words.

Some of the titles: Too Many Marshmallows, The Squeaky Wheel, The Rained-On Library Book, How a Beaver Makes a Pond, The Five-Cent Sign, The Rain Shadow.

Reading passage. Read the passage. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question. One passage per sheet, with its own question set.

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

How to teach this

Push past the signal words this year. Many causes hide in plain sentences with no because in sight, and the chain only appears when you ask what would NOT have happened without this. Try the eraser test on any event: erase it and see what else disappears.

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 3rd grade cause and effect

What are signal words, and do the passages use them?: Words like because, so, and since that announce a link. Some passages use them; others let the chain speak for itself, so your child cannot lean on the words alone.
Are the passages fiction or nonfiction?: Both, in roughly equal measure. Story causes (a shortcut through a hedge) and science causes (sunlight drying a puddle) are the same thinking in two costumes.

Related worksheets

Ready to print one?

Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 26.

Aligned to Common Core RI.3.3, RI.3.8. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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