This past week we learned all about clouds. What are clouds, how and why they form, types of clouds and where they can be found in the atmosphere.  I love being able to tie our art projects in with our studies and it worked very well this week.

Science Experiments

We started out by doing some science experiments about how water forms clouds and rain from the Usborne 365 Science Activities book .  These experiments briefly touch on water vapour, clouds, rain, condensation, dew and making a rain gauge. I love the simplicity of the experiments as they use common household items and each activity also gives a little science background.

Video and Art Time

Next, we watched a video on Youtube  that discusses what clouds are and the types of clouds.  This video is great for younger children as it provides a very basic summary.

We watched the video for a second time but stopped it at each type of cloud so that we could work on the art project for clouds, inspired by I Heart Crafty Things.

We discussed cirrus, stratus and cumulus clouds along with some of the clouds that have nimbus in their name. We only briefly talked about where the various clouds are found in the atmosphere, as we were working on getting a basic understanding at this point in time.

Resource Books

We used two other wonderful Usborne Science resource books as a reference during the week. Usborne Weather & Climate Change  and See Inside Weather and Clouds.

The Usborne Weather and Climate Change book also includes two website links where you can go to find out more information.  There was a very educational video included in this link along with a neat one-page document with photos to help identify clouds.

Nature Study Walk

Our outside nature study this week included going for a walk and then laying on the ground looking up at the sky to identify the clouds.

Comment with your experience using this lesson!