Easy Cloud Science Craft and Activity

Do your little ones know what a cloud is? Clouds are fascinating and there are many crafts and activities available online, but many of them are just that – crafts and activities. It’s important for kids to know that clouds are made up of tiny water droplets or ice crystals.

Cloud Science Information

• All air contains water.
• Near the ground, it’s usually in the form of an invisible gas called water vapor.
• Warm air rises, cools, and expands.
• Cool air doesn’t hold as much water vapor as warm air, so the vapor condenses around dust particles.
• These droplets come together by the billions and form a visible cloud.

These are great facts to start a cloud study with. Grab some cloud books at the library, and talk about the different types and kinds of weather patterns associated with them.

A Quick Cloud Science Activity

Facts are all well and good, but kids learn and retain best when they are actively involved in their learning. And that’s why I love hands-on activities. Especially when they demonstrate a topic simply and effectively.

Here is a simple water vapor activity:

• Grab a spoon.
• Have your kids look at it and hold it in their hands.
• Tell them to breathe on the spoon and take a look at what happens.
• Explain that the “fog” that forms is a little cloud. Water vapor that collected together on the surface of the spoon. That’s exactly what clouds do around dust.

A Simple Cloud Craft

Crafts have a place, too. Since the science activity is so simple and quick, do this cloud craft right afterward to give your kids a souvenir to remember the lesson. They’ll love it, and it will help cement their learning.

Cotton Ball Cloud Craft

• Take 2 cotton balls and spread them out to resemble a fluffy cumulous cloud.
• Glue the cloud onto cardstock.
• Glue two googly eyes onto the cloud and let it dry.
• Cut the cloud out so that it has a stiff cardstock back.

Have your child tell a friend about how their pet cloud was formed when water droplets collected around a tiny dust particle. And let them enjoy their new science friend. Take their cloud friend on a cloud hunt and try to find new friends and pictures in the fluffy clouds overhead. Get them outside and enjoying nature for themselves this spring.

You might also like…

• Summer Cloud Science
• 31 Days of Read-Alouds: Little Cloud
• Learning About the Water Cycle Experiment

By contributing writer Colleen.