10 Amazing Cloud Crafts for Kids

Craft time helps to build a child’s cognitive, physical and social and development process. Be it making miniature statues from clay or creating fine origami, and craftwork isn’t just about entertaining the children in the playgroup. It’s a first-hand learning experience that plays a vital role in their early education.

10 Cloud Craft Ideas for Preschoolers and Kids

Children love creating things – even though they seem to be expert in the art of making a mess! Experts agree that craft activities enhance the critical skills of preschoolers before entering formal school. While structured craft like packaged kits may provide guidance, loosely defined craft ideas can encourage real creativity in children. Toddlers develop hand-eye-co-ordination, fine motor skills and manual dexterity through sticking and cutting. Working with a range of materials expand their knowledge about different shapes, colors and textures. Sharing equipment and working on one project is a great way to involve kids to participate in a group activity. Allowing a child to make their own choices of colors and patterns develops their “self-regulation skills”. Discussing their work with others to improve communication and language skills. Thus, it is important to maximise the educational value of craft time to foster listening, attention, perseverance, patience and imagination in kids. A well-designed and attractive craft item gives children a sense of achievement and allows them to take pride in their work which boosts self-esteem. As parents, we need to offer kids a fun and relaxed environment where they can explore, experiment and create craft objects that they are confident and comfortable about whatever form it takes. Whether it’s bright and sunny or about to rain, children are often intrigued by the fluffy white or grey clouds that float around the sky. Informational texts on weather conditions, rain or clouds may be too much to handle for toddlers in their kindergarten. A simple way to reinforce a science lesson about clouds can be by making cloud craft items. By building DIY skills through crafts helps a kid to create their own portfolio of projects that define their personal style. The concept of making your own clouds sounds unique, just like something out of a fairy tale. Kids dream of touching the clouds lying on them or even watching a calming rainstorm out of the window. Those wishes can come true by learning different techniques for making impressive, adorable, or even realistic clouds. Here are some inexpensive cloud craft for toddlers that would get any child super-excited about the fun cloud shapes that can be used to decorate their room while igniting a sense of wonder in them.

1. Rainbow Cloud Craft

As winter sheds its grey coat and gives way to spring, a colorful rainbow brightens up the sky as well as our day. Rainbow cloud craft for children can be a simple activity for kids of all ages, provided the materials are cut and kept ready for the younger set. Older kids who know all about VIBGYOR can arrange the colors on their own, while the younger ones can come up with their own color combinations and take pride in hanging them up in the window.

Supplies

• Construction paper of all the colors of the rainbow
• Light cardboard or white poster board( old gift box)
• Cotton balls
• White glue

Instructions

• Cut the white poster board into the shape of a cloud.
• Cut strips of colorful construction paper. Trim the stripes so that they fit on the cloud that you create later when they are all put together.
• Fix the strips onto the cloud with glue.
• Cover the cloud shape with cotton balls with glue and spread it around using your finger.
• Add more cotton if needed to cover the area.

2. Rain Cloud Craft

Spring is the time of rain and sun. Cotton ball clouds craft brings back memories of the rainy days that come alive with the pitter-patter of raindrops on our classroom window.

Supplies

• Paper plate
• Cotton balls
• String or yarn
• White card
• Clear tape
• Water colors
• Printable raindrops or blue paper
• Scissors
• Paintbrush

Instructions

• Cut a paper plate into half with a scissor.
• Print the raindrops template onto the white card stock.
• Paint raindrops using watercolors and leave them to dry. Alternately, you can cut a bunch of raindrops from the blue paper.
• Attach one end of a piece of yarn to the back of each raindrop and the other end of the yarn to the back of the paper plate using the tape so as to hang the raindrops from the cloud.
• Cut a different length of yarn for each raindrop.

3. Shaving Cream Rain Clouds

Most kids are curious about their father’s shaving cream. It’s their chance now to use it for making this rain cloud science experiment. Your child will surely enjoy watching the colorful raindrops drop through the water into the glass.

Supplies

• Few vases, bowls or clear glasses
• Shaving cream
• Water
• Food coloring
• Small bowls or containers
• An eyedropper or ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon

Instructions

• Fill the small containers with water. (Less water will make the food coloring more concentrated allowing the rain to drop faster).
• Add different colors of food coloring to each of the small containers. (10 drops of color to 1 ounce of water)
• Fill a clear glass with 2/3 amount of the water.
• Top it with shaving cream.
• Use the eyedropper to drop the different colors of water onto the shaving cream cloud more around the edges.
• As the rain falls after the clouds get saturated with water, here the shaving cream is the cloud and the water is like the air.
• You can finally mix all the colors together by stirring it all up into a colorful mess.

4. Happy Paper Cloud Pillow

This easy paper cloud project for kids helps them to learn basic sewing skills. Moreover, they will love threading the yarn to make their adorable pillow decoration for the playroom wall.

Supplies

• White butcher paper
• Yarn
• Hole puncher
• Black marker, chalk pastels
• Poly filler

Instructions

• Draw a cloud shape on your white paper, fold it over and cut it out. Make whole punches along the sides.
• Draw a happy face using a black marker and pastels for the cheeks.
• Let your child string up the openings for the filling with the string yarn.
• Fill stuffing into the pillow and close the edges with more yarn.

5. Cloud Dough

Cloud dough or moon dough is amazingly mouldable and keeps your little one engrossed for over an hour. Made using baby oil and flour, it smells heavenly and offers the best sensory experience while your kid runs their finger through them.

Supplies

• Baby oil – 1 cup (colored oil/food coloring)
• Flour – 8 cups
• White cardboard
• Glue

Instructions

• Take the flour in a large bowl. Add the baby oil into it.
• Use a spoon or whisk to mix the ingredients.
• Knead the dough well with your hands to distribute the color evenly.
• Make small balls out of the dough to make them look like clouds.
• Cut out white cardboard in the shape of a cloud.
• Spread out the glue on it and stick the dough balls together on it.

6. Crayon Drip Rain Cloud

The texture of the cotton, the dynamic process of melting the crayons and the contrast of using different materials create an engaging art process for kids stuck indoors on a rainy day.

Supplies

• Strong glue
• Canvas
• Cotton
• Buttons
• Hair dryer
• School glue

Instructions

• Let your child unwrap the crayons from their wrappers.
• Snap the crayons into halves.
• Attach the crayons to the top of the canvas with strong glue. Allow them to dry.
• Cover the floor with a newspaper and use a hairdryer to melt the crayons. The colors get distributed in different directions.
• Once the crayon wax has cooled, attach the buttons with the school glue in the pattern of raindrops.
• Silver glitter will add a flash of lightning to it.

7. Multi-Color Paper Cloud

This cloud weaving is a simple weaving project that lets your kid focus on their basic weaving skills to make a very rewarding piece of wall art.

Supplies

• 9×12” 60 lb paper
• Scissors
• 18” Strips of Tru-Ray construction paper
• Glue

Instructions

• Draw and cut out the paper in the shape of a cloud.
• Fold the paper in half. Open it.
• Make a cloud-like shape on the upper half of the paper. Cut it out.
• Use a ruler to mark seven lines below the crease.
• Cut strips up to the top of the folded crease line.
• Take the colored strip and insert it over and under the white paper strips hanging below the cloud for making the first row.
• Take another color for the next row and weave. Continue till all the colored strips have been used.
• Push all the strips up and gently stick the strips to glue them up from both ends.
• Flip the paper over and glue the strips again to fix them firmly.

8. Rain Water Gravitational Pull From Clouds

If you’re looking for a weather science activity, this craft will help in understanding the gravitational pull of the earth that draws the raindrops towards the ground. This fun art and craft activity is surely an introduction to the water cycle and rain.

Supplies

• Regular paint
• Cotton balls
• Liquid water colors
• Eye dropper
• School glue
• Tray
• Cardstock paper
• Clip board

Instructions

• Glue cotton balls on a cardstock paper
• Place it in a tray
• Make paint using liquid watercolor and water.
• Squeeze out the colors from the eye droppers using an eyedropper on each cotton balls.
• As you lift the cardstock paper, the watercolor drops down like rain from the clouds.

9. Cloud Classification Craft

Clouds are classified depending upon the altitude in the atmosphere and their characteristics. Some clouds are puffy and white, while others are dark and cover the entire sky. Different types of cloud indicate different kinds of weather conditions. Explain each cloud to the kids while making this craft activity so that they can gain some insight about whether or might just get inspired to become a meteorologist.

Supplies

• Black cardstock (size 12×12)
• Glue
• Grey marker
• Cotton balls
• White labels

Instructions

• Take cotton balls and roll them up into worn shape pieces. Fluff them out.
• Stick them on the black cardstock to form cirrus clouds.
• Use a grey marker to color the cotton balls; pull pieces of cotton apart slightly in a wispy manner and glue them on the cardstock. Make sure that they are spread out stratus clouds.
• Take multiple cotton balls and glue them next to each other to form cumulus clouds as they are puffy in appearance.
• Take multiple cotton balls and pull them apart slightly to make sure they are flat at the bottom. Color them grey. As these clouds are farthest from the earth, you can make their size bigger than the rest.
• Stick white labels under each cloud with their names on them.

10. C Is for Cotton Cloud Activity

This easy activity teaches phonemic awareness, letter identification and hand-eye co-ordination while motivating them to make their very own cotton cloud in the shape of the letter C.

Supplies

• Cotton balls
• PVA craft glue
• Pop stick
• Glue brush
• Printable in both cursive and standard print.
• Pencil

Instructions

• Ask your child to circle all the letter C that they can find with a pencil. Let them trace over the dotted lines to form the letter C.
• Paint on the PVA craft glue into the space of the letter C using the glue brush.
• Fill the letter C with cotton balls. Add extra glue to ensure all the cotton wool balls are used within the space.

Instead of resorting to technology, parents should encourage children to make things on their own to keep them entertained. Craft time also gives them a chance to spend time with their kids so as to make them feel valued and recognized. While hands get busy crafting, children often open up and talk about their friends, school or any other personal issues. Schools, too need to incorporate craft as a subject into the curriculum so as to exploit the artistic potential of all students. This will help towards developing a goal-directed behaviour which may, in turn, reflect in their academic performances.

Also Read:

Awesome Dr Seuss Crafts for Children
Easy Ocean Crafts for Preschoolers and Children
Plastic Bottle Crafts for Children