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Clouds make a fun interactive study because unlike far-off countries, historical figures and tectonic plates (lol), clouds are a part of our daily life. Clouds affect our life experience — sunny and bright? foggy? shadowy? rainy? — and we make plans around the existence or non-existence of clouds almost every day.
My son is fascinated with weather and blue skies with fluffy white wisps are one of my favorite things, so this cloud unit study hit the spot!
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Cloud Books for Kids
Here are 3 books we used and loved for our cloud unit study, plus a fun “Clouds” youtube video playlist I put together!
Clouds
written by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Frane Lessac
This is a great book about clouds for kids from the Let’s Read and Find Out science book series. The illustrations of each cloud type are clear and bright, and the colors are so visually engaging. The text is very thorough, and the book even has instructions for a fun “create a cloud” experiment at the end
Nature Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
My kids love this book. Heck, I love this book. Approximately 99.2% of this book is NOT about clouds. But the 2-page spread that is about clouds is so great. Nature Anatomy is a book I reference for almost every single one of our nature / earth science studies, and my kids have poured hours into these pages. Let’s just say that if I woke up and found that all of my books had vanished through a portal overnight, this book would be one of the first ones I’d order again. 🙂
The Weather: Pop-Up Book
by Maike Biederstadt
This book is about all of weather, not just clouds, but since clouds are a huge part of weather, it is a great addition to this study. The giant pop-ups are so exciting for kids and bring new life to the weather conditions they’ve seen a hundred times in regular pictures. I mean, how cool this is?
“Clouds” playlist on YouTube.
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Cloud Activities for Kids
You can’t have a cloud study for kids without making a mess right? These activities were the biggest hit!
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Activity 1: Rain Cloud Experiment for Kids
This is the coolest activity, and the swirling, dreamy “raindrops” are mesmerizing. My kids loved this experiment so much. They wanted to do jar after jar!
What you will need:
— Clear glass jar or drinking glass
— Water
— Shaving Cream
— Blue Dye (and more colors, if desired)
— Small Bowls (use a different bowl for each color dye)
— Droppers
— A tray
— Clothes you don’t mind getting stained. 😉
1. Pre-mix the dye with water in small bowls.
2. Fill your glass jar 2/3 of the way with water.
3. Top the water in the jar with shaving cream.
4. Allow your child to fill the dropper with the dyed water and drop it generously on the shaving cream. It will take several droppers full of dyed water before the water begins to leak out of the bottom of the shaving cream “cloud”. This demonstrates how clouds continue to collect water until they reach saturation point, then release the water as rain.
I brought the supplies outside in the grass on a beach towel so we didn’t have to worry about the dye staining anything inside. Have fun!
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Cloud Activity 2: Cotton Cloud Chart Activity for Kids
This is a fun, but very simple cloud activity for kids! What kid doesn’t love painting and pulling cotton apart? (shudder, haha) This activity is totally scalable and can be done on a regular size piece of paper or as big as a poster paper if you want!
What you will need:
— 8.5×11 cardstock paper or a poster paper
— blue paint
— paintbrush
— water
— cotton balls
— glue
— extra paper, a pen, and scissors to make cloud labels
1. Your kids can paint the “sky” base on the cardstock paper or poster. They can do a classic blue sky, or they can get creative with a sunset sky!
2. Once the base is finished, you can pull the cotton balls apart to make the shapes you need to represent each cloud type.
3. Glue the cotton onto the sky base in groups to show the different cloud types.
4. Write the names of each cloud type and paste it by the cloud it belongs with.
This could totally be turned into a poster project. Older kids would especially enjoy adding more details, like typed up descriptions of each cloud type, painting the cumulonimbus clouds deep gray, adding yellow lightening bolts, etc. Make it fun to fit the age of your kid!
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Cloud Activity 3: Cloudy Sky Snack
What you will need:
— Blue Berry Jello
— Tube of Whipped Cream
— Clear Punch Cups or Glasses
1. Prepare jello as usual. If using plastic punch cups, allow jello liquid to cool before pouring into cups so it doesn’t melt the plastic.
2. Pour into cups and let chill in fridge.
3. Top the “blue sky” with generous whipped cream “clouds” and enjoy.
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What are you looking forward to most for your cloud study? Did you try something new in your cloud unit study? Tell me in the comments or contact me HERE.
Happy clouding, friends!
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