The following are ideas for using
Little Cloud in the classroom.

• Submitted by Lisa Johnson

  After reading Little Cloud to my first graders, we went outside to look at the clouds. The children brought out paper and wrote what they thought the clouds looked like. When we came back inside, the children chose their favorite shape for a cloud and designed it out of cottonballs. They glued their cloud design on light blue construction paper and wrote the name of their cloud picture on the bottom with white crayon. The students really loved this activity!

• Submitted by Michelle Miget

  After reading this story with my kindergarten class, I use my small group time to make unique cloud pictures. I begin by giving my students a dark or light blue piece of paper. We fold the paper in half, crease it, then open the paper back to it’s full size. The students place a small spoonful of thick white paint on the crease and fold the paper again. Students use their hands to spread the paint around inside of the paper. When they open the paper, each has a very unique cloud. The caption reads “It looked like ____.” Unique designs are guaranteed each time!!

• Submitted by Jen Ware

  During our weather week in kindergarten, we read Little Cloud in one of our small groups. After reading the book, we imagine what else Little Cloud could turn into. I give each child a sheet of tissue paper (using colors such as turquoise and blue works best), and then I have them paint the tissue with white paint. We use the wrong end of the brush (just as Eric Carle does in the Picture Writer video) to make swirls and lines in our white paint. While our white cloud paintings are drying, we go outside and look at the clouds in the sky and imagine what our cloud will look like. When the tissue paper is dry, the children cut out their cloud shape and glue it onto a blue piece of construction paper. I then give out blue crayons so that they can add some details to their clouds.

• Submitted by Diane Ward

  Recently, during a science unit on clouds, I used Little Cloud in my art center. I had my third grade students read the book Little Cloud. After reading the book, I asked each student to create a cloud out of blue and white paint. The results were wonderful. Each student created a unique cloud of their own.

• Submitted by Megan Cirrincione

  Here is a fun activity I did with my first grade class for Little Cloud. After reading the story, we sponge-painted white paint on small pieces of blue construction paper. After the paint dried, we cut out the shapes of things that Little Cloud could turn into (e.g. a school bus). We then glued the white cloudy shape onto another piece of blue construction paper. Each student wrote about his or her cloud creations on white paper. This is a great bulletin board idea!

• Submitted by Linda Dahlstrom

  I teach special education, and after reading Little Cloud, we made a cloud mobile. The students used foam to make clouds on blue paper. Then we glued blue yarn onto the cloud for raindrops. The students glued pictures of the things Little Cloud turned into on the yarn raindrops.

• Submitted by Diane Cook

  After reading Little Cloud to my first grade students, we imagined the adventures Little Cloud would have visiting our classroom. We brainstormed a list of the things he would turn into because he saw them in our room, just as he had changed shapes in the book. The children dictated a continuing class story as I took notes. The cummulative story was published on my website. The children had fun! Thanks to Mr. Carle for giving us inspiration.

• Submitted by Sara Nesheim

  I am teaching Special Education. Each child made a book titled “Student’s Name Cloud Book” with clouds on the cover. We did spunge painting and cut our papers into shapes. We also made clouds using cotton balls. Finally, we made shaving cream clouds. Each student compiled his or her artwork into a book. The students loved having their very own books. On our final day we made popcorn with an air popcorn machine. We pretended they were little clouds!

• Submitted by Kim Fischer

  A parent educator suggested this activity to me. Make all of the shapes from Little Cloud out of paper and glue each onto a craft stick. Pass out the shapes to your class. Have the children hold up their shapes as you read.

• Submitted by Tracy Porter

  After reading Little Cloud with my second graders, I introduced a unit on idiomatic expressions. For “my head was in the clouds,” the students used small paper plates and designed them as heads. They then took a larger paper plate and covered it with glue and cottonballs. I put a slice through each larger plate with an exacto knife so that students could stick their paper plate head through the cloud. The completed projects are stapled to the child’s writing of the idiom “My head was in the clouds when...” We hung all the projects on a clothesline in our classroom. It was a huge success.

  For the idiom “floating on cloud nine” the students got two small paper plates to cover with glue and cottonballs. Each child cut out a “ 9 ” and glued it to the front of the cloud. Students created miniature people and we stapled them to the tops of the clouds. The finished projects are attached to the student’s writing of the idiom “I was floating on cloud nine when...”

• Submitted by Heather

  In my kindergarten class last year we read Little Cloud. I gave the children blue plastic plates and some shaving cream and each child had to form his or her own cloud. After they created their cloud, they received blue construction paper and white chalk and reproduced their cloud by drawing. Each child then had to write what his or her cloud was. They had a ball!

• Submitted by Robin Shank

  After reading Little Cloud, my Kindergarteners go outside and look at the fluffy clouds. We also bring paint brushes and white paint to paint what we see onto blue construction paper. We then write a story about our cloud and its adventures. This makes a wonderful hallway display when we are finished!

• Submitted by Kenya Jackson

  I was a Kindergarten student teacher this Spring of 1999. During the course of a unit, I used Little Cloud to discuss the concepts of “more than” and “less than.” After reading the book, I asked the children to volunteer how many times Little Cloud changed. I wrote down the different guesses and then we returned to the book to count the actual number of times he changed. I used pre-cut index cards shaped like different clouds to show the actual number of cloud changes. Then I used more cards to show the comparison of their guesses to the actual number of cloud changes. We then discussed which group of clouds looked like it was more. We continued using all the guesses given by the students.

• Submitted by Char Short

  I teach children with special needs that are three to five. We read Little Cloud, then spread shaving cream on our desks. We made pictures in the shaving cream, then we pressed blue paper carefully onto the shaving cream to make our pictures. We make more than one cloud. This helps get our tables clean and the room smells great. Then we eat a snack outside and watch the clouds and find different things in them.

• Submitted by Sarah Ranjbar

  While studying weather we read Little Cloud. One of the activities that I do with my kinder class is make a cloud bulletin board. Each student takes a rectangular piece of construction paper (I use sky colors-light and dark blues and lavender) they fold the paper in half and cut a cloud shape. When it is opened they can see the symmetry. After cutting a cloud we squirt white paint on one half of the cloud and fold it over to imprint the other side. Then the children decide what their cloud looks like and we write it on the construction paper. We create a board called “What do you see in the clouds?”, or “Que ves en las nubes?”

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