Before I brought Alicia to watch Act 3's performance of Eric Carle's stories - Little Cloud, The Mixed-up Chameleon and The very hungry caterpillar - I decided to go through the books and some extension activities with her. It was after all, her first time attending a theatre performance. I thought it would be good to prep her a bit and arouse her interest so that she would enjoy the performance thoroughly.
As I've not been particularly creative of late and have been searching for simple, fuss-free activities to do with her, we really didn't do very much for this book but after the activities, she showed much keener interest in reading (and re-reading) Little Cloud over and over again... so much so that she could even remember some lines! :)
If you don't have much time on your hands and wanna do some activities with your child, you can try these! :)
(i) cloud observation
This is the simplest activity of all! Just pick a beautiful day where you have fluffy white clouds in the brilliant blue sky and have a conversation with your preschooler about what she sees!
Pick another day when it's about to rain and discuss how the clouds and the sky look different.
(ii) cotton ball clouds
You need:
- a piece of blue construction paper,
- fluffy white cotton balls and
- glue
Have the child dab glue all over the construction paper:
... and stick the cotton balls on!!! :)
Demonstrate how to pull apart the cotton ball slightly to stretch it and make the cloud look fluffy and have your child follow suit.
and it's done! :)
(iii) Painting clouds with bubble wrap
You need:
- drawing paper
- blue and white paint
- paint brush
- (big) bubble wrap (you can use small ones too but I think the big bubbles look better as clouds)
- sponge (to create some 'texture' in the blue sky - optional)
Get your child to paint a piece of drawing paper blue:
Dab the wet paint with a dry sponge (optional step):
Paint the bubble wrap white and press onto the blue 'sky':
You can see she had much fun painting with the bubble wrap from the big white patch of white!
If your child's painting of the cloud(s) has a semblance of any shape or animal, you can get her to write a sentence about it (for older kids).
Other activities that you may wanna try (which I didn't have time for):
- shaving cream clouds
- cloud matching activity: cut out some shapes of 'clouds' (make a matching set), mix up the clouds and get your child to pair up the clouds that look the same :)
