Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Activities
Educational Ideas to Supplement the Popular Kid's Book and New Movie
Sep 11, 2009
Since its first printing in 1982, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett [Antheneum, 1982] has been a very popular read-aloud for parents, teachers and children. The fictional town of Chewandswallow, with its daily storms of cheeseburgers, root beer and mashed potatoes, captures the imagination of young and old readers alike.
As the new animated Sony Pictures film version is released, a whole new audience will be introduced to this classic story. Teachers and parents can use Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a springboard to teach children about food, nutrition and weather.
Making Meatballs and Other Kitchen Activities
Kids love to cook and meatball making is a fun way to connect this story to the kitchen. Shaping ground meat into balls is a satisfying hands-on activity even preschoolers can enjoy. Each child can make several meatballs and the adults can serve pasta for a healthy Family Spaghetti Meal.
After reading about the beautiful Jello sunset, kids will be excited to finish the meal with a jello creation of their own. This Jello Lemon Mousse is light and delicious and even looks like a sunset! Children will enjoy comparing their kitchen creations with Ron Barrett's delightful illustrations.
Making Nutrition Fun
One of the subtle messages taught by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the fact that too much of any kind of food is boring. Townspeople in fictitious Chewandswallow get tired of too many cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. They are bogged down by heavy pancakes and floods of maple syrup.
Teachers and parents can build upon this principle by encouraging children to add variety to their food choices. A classroom or family "foodstorm" can be planned. Each child brings a plate of healthy snacks to share. A small buffet with the various choices can be attractively arranged and children congratulated for trying new foods.
Weather Watching
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs features pea soup fog and hot dog rainstorms which can spur interest in everyday meteorology. A daily weather map is a popular feature in most classrooms and many homes, as well. As children report the day's outdoor conditions, they can compare real weather to Chewandswallow weather. For instance: "Today's clouds look like whipped cream." Or "The sun looks like a big lemon pie."
Children will enjoy recording and predicting weather patterns. They can follow-up by making windsocks, flying kites or measuring rainfall caught in a bucket. Participating in other Weather Watching activities allows children to learn simple scientific facts and enjoy the world around them.
Reading and watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs provides many opportunities for supplementary educational activities. Parents and teachers can stretch the imaginative themes in this book to teach weather, cooking and nutrition. Children will enjoy it so much, they won't realize how much they are actually learning!
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