Puffy Clouds

During our first spring Mini Maker's class, we began a discussion about spring weather. We read portions of the book 'When Cloud Became a Cloud,' by Rob Hodgson and talked about how clouds can take a variety of shapes.

After our book, I gave each child a piece of canvas and asked them to draw their own cloud. This was a great starter drawing task for preschoolers because a cloud shape is open to interpretation. As long as the line gets closed into a shape, their cloud can look like anything. There was no "right way."

We took our cloud drawings to the table and flipped them over, so we were working on the opposite side of the canvas. Students were given oil pastels and encouraged to add lots of color. We talked about how clouds can be many colors and we can use our imagination to create a cloud of our own.

To add another layer of interest, we then added tempera paint on top of the oil pastels, and then glitter of course, because every class loves glitter.

If I were doing this project with older children, I would have them cut out their cloud shapes themselves. But because many of our Mini Makers were new to scissors, and our material was very tough to cut, I cut the clouds for them, trying to stay as true to the shape they drew as I could. To cut out the clouds, I folded the fabric in half so that each child had two identical pieces of cloud that could then be stapled together and stuffed. I stapled half of the cloud together and left the other half ready for them to stuff.

When students arrived for the next class, they selected ribbons they wished to add to their cloud. We imagined whether rain, snow, or rainbows might be falling from then clouds. Mini maker added their ribbon to tape and their adult helper hot glued the tape strip inside their cloud. Then students stuffed their cloud and worked with their adult to staple it closed. 

It was such a busy class, I completely forgot to take pictures. One parent was kind enough to share a picture of their finished cloud at home. Even though we were all making clouds, there was a huge variety, as if each cloud created its very own weather.