"Weather All Around Us"- Cloud

The weather has been just about perfectly matched with each of our themed days. On day 3 of Mother Goose Time's "Weather All Around Us" we talked about clouds and guess what, it was cloudy outside.

We started the day talking about where we see clouds. We talked about how we see clouds in the sky. Some days the clouds are really thick (like today) and some days they are fluffy and light and you can still see the blue sky. Then we put our Hands-On Letter C (one of our many Teacher Tools from Mother Goose Time) down on the floor. We covered it with cotton balls like the thick clouds we saw outside. We talked about how we could remove the cotton balls without using our fingers. First he tried blowing them.  He decided that kicking them was the easiest way to move them.

 Our first activity of the day was called C is for Cloud. I used some painter's tape and made a large letter C on the floor. (I have learned in the past to use painter's tape and not masking tape for these kinds of things. The masking tape leaves a really bad residue and the painter's tape does not.)

We talked about words that begin with C. At first Mason wasn't too sure. Then I showed him our Letter Set: C. He quickly said that cloud and cat both start with C. He then added that cold and car also start with C. Both Mason and Hailey then had lots of fun walking, crawling, and kicking a cotton ball on the letter C.

 Mason then picked the cat letter card and crawled like a cat on the letter C while meowing.

Our next activity was called Clouds on the Cover. Fog is a concept that Mason learned about a long time ago. I still remember coming downstairs in the morning and Mason saying "It's foggy" and thinking I do not know where you learned that but yes it is. It is amazing the things they pick up on and retain! But we talked about that the clouds are on the ground when it is foggy outside. 

I gave each of the kids their My Little Journal which is one of many Child Tools we receive from Mother Goose Time. I wrote Hailey's name on her cover. Since Hailey is only 18 months I usually write her name and say the letters as I am writing them so she can slowly learn to recognize her name in print. I then helped Mason write his name on his journal. I then asked them to draw a picture of what it looked like outside. It was a cloudy day so I helped Mason draw a cloud and Hailey scribbled what she saw. : )

 I then gave them each a glue stick and some cotton balls and they glued their clouds to the cover of their journal. This was a great activity for Hailey to learn to not use too much glue because the cotton would stick to her hands if she got too much! Oh, the learning opportunities!

We completed these two activities while we were still in Illinois and continued our cloud adventures when we got back home. We picked up with the activity Spongy Clouds. It is getting very chilly here already so this is an activity we had to do inside after I took a deep breath and had an extra cup of coffee. I used our water table and set it up in our living room with some towels. I cut up two sponges and put them in the water for the kids to experiment with. We talked about how clouds are made. I explained that clouds are made up of a lot of water. When there gets to be too much water then the cloud lets some of the water go and there is rain. I then used the sponges to demonstrate this concept. When the kids got to play with the sponges Mason kept squeezing the sponge and saying "Ahh, it's raining!" 

Our last cloud activity was mine (and I think the kids') favorite. It was called Cloud Sculptures. We talked about how clouds can look like different shapes in the sky. (Later on in the day we were in the car and Mason said "Mom, look that cloud looks like a man!") I showed the kids the starch noodles provided by Mother Goose Time. Hailey immediately put it in her mouth! We then made a cloud on a piece of paper and tried to make cloud shapes by getting the noodles a little wet and sticking them together. It was a fun balancing act for Mason to try to get the noodles on top of each other. 

This was a really fun day with Mother Goose Time. The kids love the hands on activities and being able to use their imagination. I am so blessed to be their Mommy and have this time with them.