Clouds, Cloud Formation & Types of Clouds

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The students will understand what a cloud is, how it is formed and the various types of clouds.

Teacher Materials:

• It Looked Like Spilt Milk – Paperback | Big Book
  
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
  
• large jar
• plastic bag filled with ice
• warm water
• one sheet of black paper
• flashlight
• matches

Student Materials:

• science journal, or paper to write responses
• blue paper
• cotton balls

Time Required: 45 minutes – 1 hour

Lesson Plan:

1. Read It Looked Like Spilt Milk with the class and discuss what they know about clouds.
2. Ask the students what they think a cloud is and how it is formed.
3. Then, use the following site, Dan’s Wild Wild Weather Page to read with the class about the formation of clouds. Demonstrate this concept using a felt board and pieces or through illustrations on the board. [CAREFUL! You may need to adjust your volume for Dan’s sound effects!]
4. In small groups perform an experiment of making a cloud.  While the teacher is performing the experiment, the other students can be sequencing in their journals the steps of how a cloud is formed. This can be done with illustrations or in narrative form.
5. Use Dan’s Wild Wild Weather site to research what the following clouds look like: cumulus, nimbus, stratus and cirrus. It would be helpful to have a poster resembling the clouds. There are also some beautiful pictures of clouds in the links in the site.
6. Have students fold the blue paper to form 4 boxes. Label each box with a different type of cloud and then use the cotton to make a particular cloud.

Assessment:

The teacher can evaluate the student’s responses in the science journal and check for accuracy of the sequencing of the formation of clouds.

Follow-Up/Extension:

Share the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and have students write their own story about a crazy weather day.

Grade Level(s): 1-2
By: Susan Henshaw, second grade teacher