Worksheet Grade 3 English Language Arts

Cleaning Up Heron Pond: A Grade 3 Cause-and-Effect Worksheet

A grade 3 reading worksheet in which students read about a fictional pond's pollution and cleanup and match causes to effects using text evidence.

Grade: Grade 3
Subject: English Language Arts
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

RI.3.1 Common Core ELA

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 7 require students to answer questions about Heron Pond by referring explicitly to the passage sentence that supports each answer, and item 8 has them cite the sentences that link each cause to its effect.

All materials for RI.3.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-16.

Objectives

Students will identify causes and effects described in an informational passage.
Students will answer questions about a text by pointing to the sentence that supports each answer.

Vocabulary

Key words: pollution, cause, effect, cleanup

Teacher overview

Heron Pond (a fictional pond used for this worksheet) turned cloudy after trash and oil built up along its edge. This worksheet gives students a short passage about what caused the problem at Heron Pond and what a cleanup crew did to fix it, then asks students to match causes to their effects using evidence from the text. Cause-and-effect questions give students practice connecting one event in the passage to what happened next.

Cleaning Up Heron Pond: A Grade 3 Cause-and-Effect Worksheet — Grade 3 English Language Arts

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Passage: Heron Pond used to be clear. You could see fish swimming near the top. Over the summer, people left trash on the bank. Rain washed some of the trash into the water. A lawnmower leaked oil onto the grass nearby. Rain carried that oil into the pond too. Rain washed dirt from the bare bank into the pond as well. Soon the water turned cloudy. Fewer fish came near the top to feed. A cleanup crew from the town noticed the change. They visited Heron Pond one Saturday. They picked up the trash along the bank. They placed a floating boom to soak up the oil. They planted new grass near the water. The new grass helps stop dirt from washing in during the next rain. Within a few weeks, the water looked clear again. Fish came back to the surface.

What did Heron Pond look like before the trash and oil problem?
Name two things that made the water turn cloudy.
How did the oil get from the lawnmower into the pond?
What happened to the fish after the water turned cloudy?
Name three things the cleanup crew did at Heron Pond.
Why did the crew plant new grass near the pond? Use a clue from the passage.
What happened to the water after the cleanup?
Match each cause to its effect. Causes: (a) trash washes into the pond, (b) oil drips onto the grass, (c) grass is planted near the bank. Effects: rain carries oil into the water; the water turns cloudy; dirt is less likely to wash in during the next rain.
Write one sentence. Give a rule that could stop the trash problem from happening again.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

Answer: Clear enough to see fish swimming near the surface. The passage states this in the first sentence.
Answer: Trash and oil (accept dirt). The passage says trash washed in from the bank and oil dripped from a leaking lawnmower.
Answer: Rain carried it from the grass near the pond into the water. The passage explains this directly.
Answer: Fewer fish came near the surface to feed. The passage states this after describing the cloudy water.
Answer: They picked up trash, placed a floating boom to soak up oil, and planted new grass. The passage lists all three actions.
Answer: Answers will vary, but should note that grass roots hold soil in place, which the passage suggests by saying the grass was planted to stop dirt from washing in.
Answer: It looked clear again, and fish returned. The passage states this in the last sentence.
Answer: (a) trash washes into the pond pairs with "the water turns cloudy"; (b) oil drips onto the grass pairs with "rain carries oil into the water"; (c) grass is planted near the bank pairs with "dirt is less likely to wash in during the next rain."
Answer: Answers will vary, but should propose a rule such as no littering near the pond or putting trash cans along the bank, connected to a cause described in the passage.

Differentiation

Support

Read the passage aloud a second time before item 8, and allow students to draw a line connecting each cause to its effect instead of writing the match in words.

Extension

Ask students to write one additional cause-and-effect pair that could happen at Heron Pond, not mentioned in the passage, using the same sentence pattern as item 8.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "cause" and "effect" with a simple example unrelated to water (touching ice as the cause, cold fingers as the effect) before assigning item 8. Provide a two-column cause-and-effect chart as a visual scaffold for that item.