Cloud Observation

What You Need:

• Cloud-filled sky
• Paper
• Pencil
• Colored markers

What You Do:

1. Have your child look up at a section of the sky and pick a cloud.
2. Ask her to sketch a quick picture of the sky and to indicate the location of her cloud in the picture by outlining it with one of the colored markers.
3. As soon as she's done with the first sketch, have look up at the same part of the sky again and make another sketch.
4. Have her compare the two sketches and ask her to make some observations about her cloud. She might be able to observe that the cloud has moved very slowly, and she can chart which direction it moved. If she can't locate her cloud in the second sketch, she'll be able to assume that it moved across the sky very quickly.
5. Ask her about her observations of the cloud. Ask her why she thinks clouds move.
6. Have her do the activity multiple times, then compare the different shapes, results and movements of the clouds.

In you're working with an older child, you might want to encourage her to use a ruler to measure the number of inches or centimeters the cloud moved. From that information, challenge her to guess how far she thinks the cloud actually moved across the sky!