Clouds

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to lay out in the yard and look at the clouds. I'd always imagine what it would be like to reach out and touch one.

From this non-fiction picture book titled Clouds, written by Anne Rockwell and illustrated by Frane Lessac, I was able to learn a whole lot more about the shape shifting cotton balls in the sky. This book, part of the first series of Let's-Read-And-Find-Out, provides detailed explanations of the many different types of clouds we can see in the sky. It describes how far up each cloud is located, what its name means, and what kind of weather you can expect from it.

I like that it doesn't tackle the more complex concepts of how clouds form and instead focuses on the idea that there are different types of clouds for different types of days. I think this would be a great book to read with younger elementary students, and could be used to introduce them to the science concept of weather. It even has a cloud experiment that they could do with an adult where they can make a cloud in a bottle. How cool would it be for them to be able to hold a cloud in their hand, just like what I'd dreamed about doing when I was a kid!

The illustrations in this book are very bright and eye catching, with plenty of little details for students to pick out. The fact that the pictures are so bold will help keep them focused on the different types of clouds and allow them to visualize each of the clouds in turn.

All in all, this is a great book to get younger elementary students excited and thinking about science, specifically the world around them.