Conflict Chain

This cause-and-effect worksheet supports students in Grades 5 and 6 as they build historical reasoning, reading comprehension, and civic understanding by examining the events that led to the Civil War. Through a structured chain activity with a word bank, students connect slavery, court rulings, public reaction, and rising tensions to understand how individual factors combined to make national conflict unavoidable.

Learning Goals

• Civil War Causes (Grades 5-6) – Identify key factors that contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War.
• Cause-and-Effect Reasoning – Trace how slavery, legal decisions, and public response influenced one another over time.
• Civic & Judicial Impact – Understand how court rulings affected society and intensified national division.
• Context Clue Application – Use a word bank and textual clues to accurately complete a logical sequence.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed by educators to align with upper elementary social studies, civics, and ELA standards.
• Clear Chain Organizer – Visual format helps students see how events are connected step by step.
• Reflection Component Included – Encourages deeper thinking about why compromise and peace became impossible.
• Flexible Use – Ideal for unit lessons, review activities, small groups, or formative assessment.

This printable worksheet helps students strengthen cause-and-effect thinking and historical understanding by mapping the connections that led to the Civil War. By filling in missing links and reflecting on outcomes, learners gain a clearer picture of how legal decisions and social conflict escalated into national war. It’s a simple, no-prep resource that works well in both classroom instruction and homeschool learning.

This worksheet is part of our Dred Scott Decision collection.