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Georgia Department of Education Science Standards 

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Georgia Department of Education Science Standards 

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This resource just displays the Science Standards and all the material that I will need to be sure to cover in this standard!

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This is a PDF document that I absolutely love and feel it could very beneficial for a teacher to have, especially a teacher who is making a lesson plan on this material for the first time. This sample lesson plans contains a wonderful idea for a class starter. This class starter is an interesting video about real-life weather that students will write their own observations about before we begin our lesson. It also contains important information that I will need to make sure I teach as well as fun activities and quizzes that can help me assess my students!

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This website contains a lot of information that my students would need to know about clouds. It also contains some information about weather in general that could be important in the overall understanding of all the material that needs to be learned in this standard. The only information that I would omit from teaching from this site is the information about the clouds types that are more specific than just stratus, cirrus, cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.

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At some point in our lives, we've all sprawled on our backs and gazed in wonder at fluffy, drifting clouds.

Technically, clouds are a massive collection of tiny ice crystals or water droplets - so tiny, they float way up in the air. But for your students, clouds are more than just dust and water. They're mysterious, puffy objects that wander through the sky and constantly change into endless, wonderful shapes.

It can be challenging to communicate the facts about clouds without losing the wonder of them as well. Let's take a look at the science behind clouds and their formation, along with some fun experiments to capture your students' imagination.

How Clouds Form

Despite their cotton-like appearance, clouds are made from billions of tiny droplets of water.

All air holds water. Close to the ground, it's just in the form of an invisible gas - water vapor. This warm air rises and gets colder the higher it floats. High in the sky, the air pressure drops and the once-warm air expands as it gets colder. Cold air isn't able to hold as much water as hot air, so as the warm air cools, some of this water vapor condenses around very small pieces of dust or other pollutants. This water forms a tiny droplet around each particle. If the air is cold enough, the water freezes into little ice crystals. Billions of these droplets or crystals gather together to form a cloud.

What Is Condensation?

Condensation is a part of the water cycle and is an essential part of cloud formation. The change of water from a gas to liquid form, condensation happens by a shift in air pressure and temperature.

After a shower, your bathroom mirror "fogs up." If you wipe the surface of the glass, small drops of water collect on your hand and the mirror. This condensation occurred because the hot air from the shower cooled dramatically when it interacted with the cold surface of the glass. The rapidly cooling air couldn't hold as much water as warm air, and the vapor reverted to its liquid form.

In the atmosphere, warm air cools as it rises, and water vapor condenses around tiny pieces of matter. These drops or crystals of condensed water form clouds.

Other Common Questions About Clouds

Your students' questions won't stop at, "How do clouds form?" Clouds have dozens of fascinating qualities that naturally engage a child's curiosity, so be prepared to answer a barrage of cloud-related questions. Here are three of the most common cloud questions.

1. Why Do Clouds Float?

How do these giant, fluffy objects stay high in the sky? Why don't they sink down to the ground?

Because clouds come from warm air, they have a higher temperature than the air around them. As long as the cloud is warmer than the atmosphere around it, it will float suspended in the sky.

2. Why Are Clouds White?

Light travels through the air in waves with different lengths, and each color we see has a unique wavelength. The ice crystals or drops of water inside clouds are big enough to scatter the light of all seven colors almost equally, which makes them look white.

But we all know that clouds sometimes get gray and ominous. This is because the light that hits a cloud gets reflected back towards the sun, so the bottom of the cloud - the part we see - looks gray. In rain clouds, the water droplets are larger and scatter even more light, meaning less light makes it out the bottom of the cloud. Because they are denser than normal clouds, rain clouds are consequently darker.

3. How Do Clouds Move?

Clouds are tossed around by the winds high in the atmosphere. The highest cirrus clouds are carried by the zooming jet stream, which makes them move incredibly fast - sometimes over 100 miles per hour. Thunderstorm clouds generally move fast, too, but not that fast. Typically, a storm blows through an area between 30 and 40 miles per hour.

The Different Types of Clouds

Clouds come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, but every type is highly specialized - just by looking at a cloud, you can tell how high it's floating and can even predict the weather.

Clouds are broadly categorized into three groups based on height - cirrus, alto and stratus - although there are a few other kinds as well. We'll break down the categories and examine the different clouds found within each.

1. Cirrus Clouds

Cirrus clouds are the highest clouds, forming above 18,000 feet in the atmosphere. There are three types of cirrus clouds: cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus.

Cirrus: These common high clouds give this category its name. Made up of ice crystals, cirrus clouds look thin and wispy and high winds blow them into long streams. Usually white, cirrus clouds predict pleasant weather, but watch them closely - they often indicate that the weather is going to change in the next 24 hours.

Cirrostratus: Thin and sheetlike, cirrostratus clouds often fill the whole sky. A bank of cirrostratus clouds is very thin, and sometimes you can see the moon or sun shining through them. Typically, if you notice cirrostratus clouds, expect a storm in the next 12 to 24 hours.

Cirrocumulus: These small, round clouds form long rows high in the sky. Look for cirrocumulus clouds during the cold winter months - if you see them in your sky, you can expect cold but fair weather. However, in tropical areas, cirrocumulus clouds can indicate the approach of a hurricane.

2. Alto Clouds

The "in-between" clouds, alto clouds hover anywhere between 6,500 and 18,000 feet in the air. There are only two types of alto clouds to remember - altostratus and altocumulus.

Altostratus: These blue-to-gray clouds typically cover the whole sky, and they are formed from both drops of water and ice crystals. In thinner areas, you might barely see the sun through them. Grab your umbrella if your sky is filled with altostratus - they often form before storms with continuously falling snow or rain.

Altocumulus: Gray and puffy, altocumulus form around water droplets instead of ice. Usually, altocumulus clouds huddle together in groups. Watch out if you see them on a hot and humid morning - thunderstorms will probably come in the late afternoon.

3. Stratus Clouds

These are the lowest-hanging types of clouds and form anywhere up to 6,500 feet. Three types of clouds are categorized as stratus clouds - stratus, stratocumulus and nimbostratus.

Stratus: This category is named after these gray and uniform clouds. Stratus clouds will often fill the whole sky, and they almost look like fog that hovers just above the ground. Stratus clouds often produce a light drizzle or mist.

Stratocumulus: Puffy, low to the ground and very gray, stratocumulus clouds gather in lines. Hints of blue sky peek out between the rows. Although stratocumulus clouds rarely produce precipitation, they can easily grow into rainy nimbostratus clouds.

Nimbostratus: These clouds are a dark, broody gray, and are often associated with continuous precipitation, either snow or rain. You won't get storms out of nimbostratus clouds, though - just light or moderate precipitation.

4. Clouds That Grow Vertically

Both cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds grow vertically, towering high into the sky. But they have a few important distinctions:

Cumulus: These are the dreamy shape-shifting clouds, the ones perfect for lying on your back and trying to decide what they look like. Cumulus clouds are fluffy and white, resembling suspended pieces of cotton candy. Known as "fair-weather clouds," cumulus clouds have a flat base and rounded tops, and they often float along only 3,300 feet above the ground.

Cumulonimbus: Giant and ominous, we all know cumulonimbus clouds as the clouds in thunderstorms. Often, high winds flatten out the tops of cumulonimbus clouds, giving these multi-layered clouds a distinct anvil appearance. With cumulonimbus clouds, expect heavy snow, rain, lightning, hail and sometimes tornadoes. These giants can grow up to 50,000 feet tall.

5. Other Types of Clouds

Some clouds don't fit into the normal "cloud" categories. Here are a few of the most common:

Mammatus: These are the low hanging bumps that hang below cumulonimbus clouds. If you see a massive cumulonimbus with mammatus clouds, you can expect severe weather.

Lenticular: You'll only see lovely lenticular clouds if you live around mountains. Because of both their extreme heights and the low valleys in between them, mountains redirect winds in wave patterns. These waving winds create soft and smooth lenticular clouds, which look like frisbee discs or even flying saucers.

Contrail: Who hasn't looked in wonder at the long slashes of clouds left in the wake of airplanes? These short-lived clouds are called contrails and form from the condensation expelled by jet airplanes. The hot and humid exhaust of a plane reacts with the cold, low-pressure air around it, creating strings of clouds that stitch across the sky.

Fractus: These are the small, ragged fragments of clouds that have been torn from larger clouds. Fractus clouds don't have a clearly defined base, change constantly, and are usually indicative of strong winds.

Fog: When we walk through fog, we experience what it's like to walk through a cloud. This "cloud-on-the-ground" typically forms when warm southerly winds bring a wave of humid air into an area. The warm air blows over a much colder soil or snow, and it begins to cool from below. If the air can't absorb any more moisture, the water will condense and create a cloud.

Hands-On Lessons

For an engaging look at how clouds form, try one of these two easy experiments - you're sure to keep your students' attention. Using experiments is a great way to easily communicate cloud facts to children, and to keep them focused throughout the lesson.

1. Cloud in a Bottle Experiment

You don't need many materials to create your very own cloud. Try this experiment to give your students a hands-on demonstration of the steps and ingredients required for clouds to form.

Materials

Here are the tools you need to collect:

2-liter clear plastic bottle

Warm water

Matches

Experiment

Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a cloud in your classroom.

1. Pour warm water into the clear plastic bottle until it's roughly one-third full. Twist on the cap.

2. Squeeze the bottle tightly around the middle and then release. Have your students note that nothing happens - you still need another ingredient to make a cloud. Note - if the inside of the bottle is obscured by condensation, gently shake the bottle to let the water wash it away.

3. Carefully, light a match and take the cap off of the bottle. Hold the lit match over the opening.

4. Quickly, drop the match into the bottle and twist the cap back on.

5. Once again, slowly squeeze and release the bottle. A cloud will appear when you let go and vanish when you squeeze.

Explanation

There are three ingredients to cloud formation - water vapor, dust or other particles and a drop in air pressure. The warm water adds water vapor to the air trapped inside the bottle as it evaporates. But if you squeeze and release the bottle at this point, no cloud forms - the air doesn't yet have any debris particles.

Once you drop in the match, the smoke gives the water vapor something to condense around. Now, when you squeeze and release the bottle, a cloud forms. The final requirement for clouds is a drop in air pressure. When you squeeze the bottle, you dramatically increase the air pressure, and it drops as you release. Viola - a cloud!

2. Cloud in a Jar Experiment

A variation of the cloud in a bottle experiment, this one requires a glass jar and some ice.

Materials

Before you begin, gather these supplies:

Experiment

With only a few steps, give your students an up-close look at a cloud.

1. Pour the hot water into a jar, until it is about halfway filled. Make sure the water is not too hot or that you have warmed the jar ahead of time - pouring hot water into a cold jar could cause the glass to crack!

2. Twist the lid back on the jar, or cover the opening with a plate. Place some ice on top of the lid or dish.

3. Let the jar sit for a little while and see that the hot water is creating some steam.

4. Light a match and allow it to burn for a few moments. Blow out the match, drop it into the jar and quickly cover the opening with the plate of ice.

5. The "cloud" will be much more visible. Lift the lid and see the cloud fade into the room.

Explanation

The same principles are at work in this experiment as in the cloud-in-a-bottle process. To form, a cloud needs water vapor, air debris and a change in temperature and pressure. In this experiment, instead of squeezing the bottle, the ice drops the air temperature and pressure inside of the jar and a cloud is born.

Awaken Your Child's Curiosity

At Science Explorers, we are dedicated to making science fun and engaging for your children. We use interactive and hands-on techniques to foster a kid's natural wonder and curiosity. Some of our favorite activities include dissection, rocket launches, rubber eggs and tornadoes-in-a-bottle, to just name a few.

Read more about our summer science camps and after-school clubs, and feel free to contact us with any questions. We look forward to learning with you.

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Teaching Children About How Clouds Form | Cloud Experiments For Kids

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At some point in our lives, we've all sprawled on our backs and gazed in wonder at fluffy, drifting clouds. Technically, clouds are a massive collection of tiny ice crystals or water droplets - so tiny, they float way up in the air. But for your students, clouds are more than just dust and water.

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This video can be something beneficial to use as a class starter or something to fully sum up all the material after I teach a lesson.

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All About Clouds for Kids: Types and Names of Clouds - FreeSchool

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Smartboard Interactive Notes & Activities

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Smartboard Interactive Notes & Activities

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This is an interactive presentation that can only be opened up and used on the Smartboard. While I did not have a Smartboard to fully test this presentation out on, I did see a sample of this presentation, and I thought it was great! It contained important information as well as engaging, interactive activities that I could implement with my class!

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Personally, as a former student, I loved when my teachers played songs about the material we were learning about. I feel that this would be a fun and engaging way that I could effectively allow my students to review the material I presented to them in class. This song is catchy and can be very fun to sing along to. We could sing along to it every class period until we take a test. When my students take the test, they might can sing this song in their head to help them with answering some of the questions.

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A song to help elementary school student remember the four different types of clouds (cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulo-nimbus) and the weather associated with each

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This is a PDF template that I can easily print for my students. This is a cloud journal that students will be able to take with them anywhere to write down anything that they see and notice in the sky. As we spend more and more time learning about clouds and weather, I would also get them to guess what weather would be associated with the clouds that they saw in the sky. Each day, the journal will serve as a class starter because I will get a few students to share their observations and drawings with the class!
**This template is cute but it only contains day 1 and day 2, so I would have to make sure that I found a way to make additional sheets that say day 3,4,5,6 etc.

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This is an activity that I could do with my class later after I am confident that they have a basic understanding of clouds. This activity covers more of condensation and what happens in clouds when it rains. It introduces and leads into learning more about the water cycle. It is definitely a fun experiment that my students will surely enjoy.

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Rain Cloud in a Jar Science Experiment with Printable Recording Sheets

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This rain cloud in a jar is a weather science experiment gives young children a chance to explore clouds and rain in a hands-on and engaging way! If you are looking for a simple and easy science activity to do with the kids this spring, this is perfect for you.

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This is one of the first activities that I can implement into a lesson with my class. This is just a fun way that I could go about ensuring that my students know what each cloud type looks like from its shape, size and color! This can be a graphic organizer that they can keep with them throughout the entire unit to help them remember each of the types. For this lesson, specifically, I would only make them create clouds for the 4 types: cirrus, stratus, cumulus and cumulonimbus.

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We had do much fun studying the different types of clouds! As a way to wrap up our week, I created a craft for the kids to put together as they reviewed the different types of clouds.

I made the poster sheet to show the kids what they were going to do for each cloud, and then gave them the individual cards to illustrate each cloud. I recommend that you print the cards or the poster sheet directly on card stock so it is sturdier and it also gives you the background color so it is not white.

This is what we used for each cloud. For the cumulus and cirrocumulus, we mixed equal parts of shaving cream and glue. I had heard about this mixture but never tried it. It is so fun and it dries puffy. This was my kids favorite, of course!

The cumulonimbus is the same mixture of shaving cream and glue and then I added a few drops of black paint to make it gray. The cirrus clouds are chalk marks and the stratus and stratocumulus are cotton balls spread out.

This was a fun project and very easy to make with items you already have at home. 🙂 I am excited about hanging these up in the school room. I love displaying the kids work on the walls plus it gives me a way to review material in a spontaneous way.

Here's a video showing you how we put it together.

Hope you guys can use it with your kids!

Click below to download the file
Types of Clouds Craft

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We had do much fun studying the different types of clouds! As a way to wrap up our week, I created a craft for the kids to put together as they reviewed the different types of clouds.

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I think this is a great presentation of information about each of the cloud types. This could easily be a resource I use in my lesson to display on the board while I am teaching. Additionally, if I choose to use a different form of presentation like the Smartboard notes or my own personal powerpoint, I can let these few slides run through a timed slideshow as my students are coming into class or to serve as a reminder of the information just learned when they are working on their own individual assignments! Of course, I would omit the last few slides in this that discuss what we would do in the journal and the activity that we would complete in class one day.

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This is a PDF document that I can easily print out for my students. These are recording sheets that they can place their hypotheses, observations and conclusions on!