Cloud Explorations!

“Hey Guys! There is a cloud in the sky that looks like Gerald the Elephant!”

My son Lukas gave us our provocation for learning early Monday morning. The students are obsessed with Mo Willem’s Elephant and Piggie books, and to hear that something looked like Gerald the Elephant was very exciting! The whole class ran outside to the playground courtyard straining to see this cloud!

The students started pointing out all sorts of shapes and images they saw in the clouds, and asked if we could stay out and look for more clouds. We decided to go to a wider, more open space, and headed to the field. Some of us lay down on the grass, some sat and some stood.

“The clouds are moving across the sky really really fast!” –Ella

“I think there are planes up there too!” –Jimmy

“Look!  There is Gerald the Elephant again!  And I think I see Piggie!” –Liam

“Look over there!” (pointing) “That cloud looks like a Christmas tree!” –Map

“It’s actually a white cat.” –Dylan

“I see so many different things…a dog, a boat, an elephant…” –Daniel

 “Let’s see if the clouds look different on the other side of the field!” –Xavion

All of the students ran back and forth across the field to get different viewpoints of the sky and the clouds.

Many of the students decided they wanted to make clouds out of different materials so we looked around the classroom to see what we could use to represent them.  There were so many suggestions, and the students tried out different things.

“Let’s use fluffy snow like we did at Christmas! It is white!” –Aria

“I think it has to feel puffy.” –Jasper (We found the shaving cream.)

“I’m just going to draw them and add the words Mom and Dad so I can tell them about what we saw.” –Si-Yoon

“Or we could build the shapes with the blocks.” –Hudson