Cloud Identification for Kids: Make a Cloud Viewer

We spend our lives walking beneath the sky. It seems idyllic, sometimes ominous, but always somehow beautiful. It’s easy to forget that the sky isn’t just a pretty thing to look at, it is actually an amazing atmospheric ocean that can help us know and predict the weather.

How? By observing clouds!

There are many specific types of clouds and each has a different composition of ice crystals and water droplets. In this post, I’m going to show you how to make a cloud viewer so your kids can learn to identify the various types of clouds.

Why Learning To Identify Clouds Matters

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Teaching kids that the clouds above are more than just fluffy white poofs and helping them to identify the different types of clouds (and what they can mean for the weather) can give them the power to understand more about the world around them.

In this activity, students will learn to recognize common cloud types and create their own DIY Cloud Viewer to use outside.

If your students love weather science, you might also enjoy exploring rain clouds in action with this Rainbow Rain experiment.

Basic Cloud Types

There are a multitude of different cloud types and subcategories – but for kids and basic cloud identification, it’s helpful to start with these common types.

They are identified in part by how high in the sky they are!

High Clouds (Above 20,000 feet)

The first are the highest (or furthest away) these clouds sit over 20,000 feet in the air!

Cirrus Clouds

Cirrus Clouds are thin and wispy, kind of like when you unravel pieces of cotton candy. These clouds often mean there is a change in the weather coming our way.

Cirrocumulus Clouds

These are smaller white ripples – I think they kind of look like the wet sand left behind when a wave comes into shore and then subsides. These clouds are made up of ice crystals because the air is so cold at this level.

Mid-Level Clouds (6,500–20,000 feet)

The next level of clouds are between 6,500 and 20,000 feet up in the sky – these make up a big range in the sky!

Altocumulus

These clouds are made up of white or gray patches that appear as rows of small fluffy clouds.

Altostratus

These are a thin gray “blanket” that covers the sky; it looks like you’re looking at the sky through a blanket, dimmer and blocked a little but still glowing.

Low Clouds (Below 6,500 feet)

The next group is the low clouds, these are under 6,500 feet in the sky and easiest to identify:

Cumulus Clouds

These are the classic clouds that look like big fluffy bunches of cotton in the sky. They have flatter bottoms and big rounded tops. These are good weather, feel-good clouds. They’re the classic “cotton ball” clouds.

Stratus Clouds

Similar to the altostratus clouds, stratus clouds look like a flat, gray blanket, but unlike the altostratus they don’t often have the sun shining through. These are the clouds that bring us drizzly, overcast days.

Storm Clouds

Finally, we have the big, bad storm clouds – these clouds cover all the levels of the others and they are the ones we see when we know a storm is rolling in.

Cumulonimbus

These are big, intimidating, kind of mushroom shaped vertical clouds with a thick bottom and a wider flat top. These clouds bring weather like thunder, lightning, and heavy rain.

Activity: Make a Cloud Viewer

To further explore the clouds, have kids make “Cloud Viewers” in class or at home. You can make these basic viewers out of a recycled cereal box.

Cloud Viewer Printable Template

To make it easier for you, I’m including a template of shapes I used for my cloud viewer, but your students can use their creativity and make this project their own!

Cloud viewers can be left plain or painted and decorated – the scope of the project is up to you!

Materials You’ll Need to Make a Cloud Viewer

What will you need:

• Cereal Boxes
• Template (If you want)
• Markers
• Scissors
• Brass Plated Fasteners (The ones that look like a little button on top with wings in the back that hold things in place)
• Any type of craft supplies you would like to embellish the viewers
• A list of cloud attributes for kids to copy onto the “spinner” portion of the cloud identifier

Safety Considerations

Since this is an outdoor activity, remind children not to look directly at the sun while observing clouds to keep their eyes protected. Use the viewer away from roads or busy areas. As always, younger children may need adult supervision when using scissors.

Instructions for Making a Cloud Viewer

The cloud viewer we’re making is kind of a boxy figure 8 shape. The top portion will be used to view the clouds and the bottom portion acts as a handle, so you can hold the viewer while spinning the identification wheel in the middle.

Step by Step Directions

Here are the step by step directions for making your own:

Step 1: Cut the cereal box so it can lay flat and cut out one of the bigger rectangle sides.

Step 2: Trace the template onto the cereal box and cut it out. The figure 8 should be kept as one piece – the template has bigger options to help you decide the size that works best for you and your cereal box.

Step 3: Use another part of the cereal box to trace and cut a circle to make your identification spinner.

Step 4: If you are going to color or decorate the viewer – this is the best time to do it!

Step 5: Draw 7 sections onto your spinner and then in each section write a description of each kind of cloud and what you need to know to identify it through the viewer.

Step 6: Punch a hole through the middle of both the spinner and the viewer and use one of your fasteners to connect them.

Step 7: Head outside and point your viewer to the sky and see if you can identify the clouds!

My students loved taking these viewers outside and checking out the clouds. The spinner made it easy to visually see the checklist of attributes so they could identify what they were seeing.

Plus, this is a great takeaway project so they can bring them home and continue their learning! As an added bonus -we got to be out in the fresh air, enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

Extension and Cross Curricular Ideas

• Weather Journal: Students can draw the clouds they observe each day and record the weather that follows. For younger students, making a weather wheel is a fun companion activity.
• Math Extension: Measure how many days each type of cloud appears and graph the results.
• Geography Connection: Compare the various cloud types that are seen in different climates or regions.
• Language Arts: Invite your students to write descriptive sky observations or weather poems.

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