National Sky Awareness Week is coming ... April 20 - 26, 2003

A Cloud and Sky Watcher Window Objective: to become aware of the different colors of the sky and clouds Materials: poster board, poster paint (white, blue and black), paper plates, paint brushes, paint chips, scissors, glue sticks Background: Children love to build and use cloud and sky watcher windows. It is a great way for each child to view their special piece of the sky above! It also fosters a stronger sense of observing the natural world around them. Procedure: Prepare sky and cloud watchers using 8 1/2" x 11" poster board. Fold poster board in half; cut out a rectangle along the folded edge, leaving about a 2" frame. How many animals can you find in these clouds?-------------------->

Goto Sky Awareness Week designed by Tracie Talluto

USING POSTER PAINT...Have children paint half their watcher in blues and the other half in grays. Alternatively, paint one side of the watcher in blues and the other side in grays. Be sure to leave one area unpainted to represent white. For each child, place 6 to 12 teaspoon-size blobs of white poster paint around the outside of a paper plate, and a larger blob of blue paint in the center. They should then add one drop of blue paint to the first blob and gently mix. Next they should paint a large band (about 1" to 2") from the outer edge to the inner edge of the watcher. They should then add two drops of blue paint to the second blob, and paint another band next to the first. Continue painting successively darker shades until all white blobs are used up. Repeat the activity using black paint.

Allow to dry and number or letter the colors in order so that the children can easily identify the colors they see.

USING PAINT CHIPS...Make a collection of blue and gray paint chip strips from your local paint store (schools participating in the National Sky Awareness Week data collection project should use the special cloud color chip set posted on the web); be sure to include at least one or two whites. Please don't take too many paint chips from the paint store! Give each child (or group of children) several strips of chips. Have them cut the colors apart, leaving the color names on the chips for easier color identification (in the example below, we showed letters; on the spceial posted chip set - above - we used color and number). Using a glue stick, they should glue at least a dozen chips onto their window frame. They can paste colors on just one side, or they can paste blues on one side and grays and whites on the other.

Have children predict the color(s) they expect to see most frequently. Post their predictions.

Go outside and have children hold their watcher windows up to the sky in the direction away from the sun. Have them match (as best they can) the actual sky or cloud colors with those on their watchers. Tell the children that it is okay to find more than one color in the sky or in the clouds!

Make a master sky watcher window for your class. As a class activity, assign a daily weather observer (or team) to record observed cloud and sky colors on a daily weather calendar. Children will often see more than one color during their observations. The data can later be transferred to a separate data record for easier counting / charting at the end of the month. How did the observed sky and cloud colors compare to their predictions?

HERE ARE SOME OTHER QUESTIONS TO PONDER...

Which sky/cloud color(s) are observed most frequently?

Compare weather to sky and cloud colors. For example, under what weather conditions is the sky the brightest blue? the darkest gray? What is the most frequently observed cloud color just before it starts to rain? snow?

Does the sky/cloud color(s) change during the day?

Does the sky/cloud color change from season to season?

Does the sky/cloud color(s) change from one part of the sky to another?

Does everyone see the same colors in the sky? Why or why not? What might be causing the different colors (e.g., pollution or different amounts of sunlight)?

Remember that each child looks at a different part of the sky and the ability to distinguish colors is different for each person. Each child really sees the sky and clouds as no one else can!

EXTENSION ACTIVITY -- Have students rename the paint chip colors according to their frame of reference, experiences,a nd other criteria.

SKY and CLOUD WATCHER


adapted from Anytime Weather Everywhere,
© H. Michael Mogil and Barbara G. Levine,
HOW THE WEATHERWORKS Press, 1996

This page was last updated on September 15, 2002.

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