Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning

Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning Worksheet (Grade 6 Science, TEKS 6.3A)

Teach grade 6 students how to build a scientific explanation the way scientists do. This one-page reading and activity sheet introduces claim, evidence, and reasoning with a simple sunlight and shirt color example and a bouncing ball experiment.

What's Inside

• Three picture cards that define claim, evidence, and reasoning, each with a clue word and a matching example
• Activity 1: Students read six sentences from an explanation about plants and sunlight and write C, E, or R
• Activity 2: Students read a small data table about three bouncing balls, then circle the claim the data supports, the evidence for it, and the sentence that is not evidence
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red

How Teachers Use It

Use it to introduce CER before a lab write-up, as a warm-up, or as practice for TEKS 6.3A. Every term is taught on the page, so no prior knowledge is needed. The sheet takes about 10 minutes and prints clearly in black and white.

This worksheet is part of the Reading in Science series for grade 6. It supports TEKS 6.3A: develop explanations and propose solutions supported by data and models and consistent with scientific ideas, principles, and theories. Pair it with the other TEKS 6.3 sheets to build a short unit on evidence-based explanations and argumentation.

Why It Works

Each sheet teaches the key terms in plain words first, then asks students to use only what the page taught. Activities stay at the circle, sort, match, and write-a-letter level, so students build confidence while the answer key lets teachers check work fast. The clean layout is also easy to project for a whole-class review.