Clouds

During April we are learning about spring so I thought it would be a good idea to do a mini unit on clouds.

We started by looking at 4 basic cloud types with these 3 part cards I made. It was so cute seeing the kids looking through them and staring out the window, tryin to figure out what kind of clouds we were seeing.

Then we made clouds and tried to decide what they looked like. We did this by using an eyedropper and dropping bits of white paint into the center and then folding the paper and squishing it all around. I love doing things like this where I get to realy see their imaginations at work trying to decide what things are.

Next we looked at the water cycle. First we colored these pictures which explained everything to us and then we played a game where we were waterdrops. They would start in a cloud and then the cloud would fill up and they would fall to the ground. Then they would decide if they were travellin to the ocean or into plants and then evaporate up and start all over again. We also use this little song to remember the cycle..

Puddle Puddle, Puddle Puddle,

On the ground, On the ground,

Evaporating up, evaporating up,

to the clouds, to the clouds,

Oh no! Oh no!

The cloud is full! The cloud is full!

We're falling to the ground, We're falling to the ground,

Rain drops fall, rain drops fall

And of course, hands on learning always works best! We brought out cotton balls and I let the kids hold them before putting water on them to see how heavy they were. Then we slowly started added more and more water to see how much it would take for the cloud to start raining. Then, the kids had fun making their own storms! They would put the cotton balls into water and pull them up and watch the rain fall. Some of them were happy to just let the rain fall back into the container where as others realized that just like clouds, their cotton ball could move a bit before it would run out of rain and they could use it to fill different containers.

I dont have a picture of our other experiment but we also made rain in our kitchen. First I boiled a pot of water and then put a lid on it. As the droplets caught on the lid it looked like rain.

Now if only we could find a way to get rid of all the clouds outside to make way for sunshine!