Materials
Cotton balls Construction paper
Glue
Safety scissors
String
Instructions
- Take a handful of cotton balls and stretch each ball until it is thin and loose.
- Spread some glue on a piece of construction paper. You may want to use a paintbrush or a popsicle stick to really spread it so there are no lumps.
- Lay your cotton balls on top of the glue, and let it dry.
- Use safety scissors or ask a grown-up Sprout to cut around the edges around the cotton.
- Cut a small hole at the top of your cloud and thread a piece of string through the hole. Tie the sting and hang your cloud from your wall or the ceiling.
- Now you have your very own cloud! Can you see wispy clouds like yours when you are outside?
More Ideas
Use glue to pile your cotton balls high on a piece of paper and then cut around the edges of the cotton. Hang it next to your other cloud. Can you see thick, billowing clouds outside?
Make a storm cloud by gluing cotton balls to a piece of construction paper and then use black or grey water-based paint to paint your cloud.
Try making all the clouds you see into cotton ball creations and hang them in your room to make your very own indoor sky!
Why It’s So
Believe it or not, there is water in the air all around us, but it isn’t like the water we drink. The water we drink is in the form of a liquid, but the water in the air is a gas, called water vapor. When the air is warm, the water stays in the air, but when it gets cold, the water turns into tiny drops of liquid water. This is what clouds are made of!
Clouds are formed high in the sky where it is cold. Billions of tiny water drops form in the cold air and stick to pieces of dust. From the ground, they look like big, white clouds.
Even though we can’t touch a cloud, we can still feel the water in the air. Take a deep breath. Now cup your hands around your mouth and exhale. Do your hands feel warm and a little wet? This is because there is water in your breath too. Now hold a mirror close to your mouth and exhale again. The mirror gets foggy from your breath! The water vapor in your warm breath touches the cold mirror, and just like in a cloud, the water in your breath cools and forms tiny droplets. If you exhale a few more times, you can see the droplets get bigger and bigger!
Information provided by Omaha Children’s Museum
Explore more at www.ocm.org