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Cause and Effect is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on describing why one thing leads to another, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.3. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 18 of them with different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 12 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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One paper per pupil

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 18 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Cause and Effect

RI.3.3

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How a Windmill Grinds Flour

A windmill turns moving air into turning stone. The sails are set at a slight angle. Because of that angle, wind pushing on them cannot pass straight through, so it pushes them round instead. The sails turn a horizontal shaft. A large wooden gear on that shaft meshes with a smaller one on an upright shaft, which turns the millstones below. Because the smaller gear has fewer teeth, it spins faster than the sails do. Four turns of the sails can mean twenty turns of the stone. The grain falls between two stones. The top stone turns; the bottom one does not. The grain is crushed between them, and flour comes out at the edge.

  1. 1. Explain the cause and effect between the small gear and the speed of the stone.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Turning Milk into Cheese

Cheese begins as an accident that people learned to repeat. Milk is mostly water with fat and protein in it. To make cheese, the protein has to be separated out. A starter culture of bacteria is added first. The bacteria turn some of the milk sugar into acid, and the acid begins to make the protein clump together. Then rennet is added, which finishes the job. The milk splits into solid curds and watery whey. The whey is drained off. The curds are pressed, salted, and left to age. Time does the rest: a cheese aged for two years tastes nothing like the same cheese at two weeks.

  1. 1. Explain the cause and effect between the acid and the curds.

LessonPrint · RI.3.3 · Set 12 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Cause and Effect

Set 12. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Because the smaller gear has fewer teeth, it spins faster, so the stone turns faster than the sails.
  2. 2.1. The acid makes the protein clump together, and rennet finishes it, so the milk splits into curds and whey.

More practice for RI.3.3

Explain how events or steps connect, using time and cause words.

Teaching this next? Cause, Sequence and Time Language is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.3.3 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.