In this activity, students will identify cause and effect relationships by answering the some of the following or similar questions:
Students will create a grid storyboard to organize their thoughts on the numerous impacts of the drought on the environment and community. See the storyboard above for an example. Students can also create a T-Chart for writing the causes and effects.
Severe drought in Kenya.
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that shows cause and effect relationships in "Kenya’s Long Dry Season". Each cause and effect pair will be shown in the same row.
Encourage students to verbally identify causes and effects during a class conversation. This helps students practice critical thinking and connect ideas in real time.
Create a visual anchor chart that displays key cause and effect examples from the story. Refer back to this chart during other lessons to strengthen understanding.
Share current news stories or local examples of drought. Ask students to identify causes and effects from these examples, making learning relevant and meaningful.
Assign tasks with varied complexity based on student readiness. Offer sentence stems or graphic organizers for extra support, and challenge advanced students to find multiple effects for each cause.
Have students write one cause and one effect from the story on a sticky note before leaving class. Review these to check comprehension and guide future instruction.
The main cause in 'Kenya’s Long Dry Season' is the severe drought, which leads to effects like dying cattle, shriveling crops, rising food prices, and hardships for communities that depend on agriculture and livestock.
Students can identify cause and effect relationships by looking for events that answer questions like What happened because of the drought? and What did people do in response? Using a T-Chart or storyboard helps organize these pairs visually.
Examples of effects from the drought include dry grasslands, leafless trees, nearly empty watering holes, cattle deaths, shrinking grain harvests, and a 130% rise in food prices.
The best way is to use a grid storyboard or a T-Chart. The left side lists causes (why), and the right side lists effects (what happened), with a brief description under each to explain the relationship.
The drought impacts communities by reducing food supply, raising prices, and threatening livelihoods. Schools are affected as organizations like the WFP help keep kids in school by providing meals to support nutrition during tough times.