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Homeschool Unit Studies: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Unit Study

May 14, 2016 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Springtime is an excellent season to talk about weather. Spring pretty much has it all: cold weather in the beginning, windy days, thunderstorms, light drizzles, rainbows, sunshine, and (down here in the South) high temperatures!

Since one of our family movie night features last year was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we made it into a weather unit featuring the story and weather activities! Check out our Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs unit study – one of our fun homeschool unit studies!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Unit Study

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Unit Study

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Of course, we started by reading the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Unit

As you probably know, the book features a tall tale told by a grandpa about a town called Chewandswallow – where food literally rained down from the sky. At first, everything was nice and predictable, but something awful happened and the town became deluged with food that drowned, crushed, and ruined everything. People had to escape on stale pieces of bread. It was pretty rough. 🙂

Since the book centers on the concept of weather, we decided to start our unit with some simple weather charting. I got this simple weather observation chart from the Notebooking Nook. (It’s free!)

Weather Observation for Kids

On the chart, you can note the forecast for each day of the upcoming week.

Tracking Weather with Kids

Then you do a comparison to see if the actual weather is close to the forecast.

Weather Charting with Kids

Ours ended up being pretty close. What I really like about this chart is that you can use actual temperature readings, weather words, or just let the kids draw pictures. It’s easy to adapt it for everyone’s level.

We also started talking about some common weather phenomena. These resources are super handy:

  • What is a tornado?
  • What is a hurricane?
  • What is a flash flood?
  • How do weather forecasters predict the weather?

After our discussion about weather, we watched the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

And that sparked a lively discussion about how books often differ from their movie versions. The movie was wayyyy different, but still good. Plus, it featured a wonderful message for young girls to be comfortable with themselves, even if they’re “nerdy”. I loved it.

Of course, you can always make spaghetti and meatballs with your kids. 🙂

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Unit Study for Kids

For more weather learning fun, check out these weather lessons for kids!

Printable Spanish Flashcards Weather @ Look! We're Learning!

Learn about extreme weather in this hurricane unit study for kids!

And to learn more about what makes up a town, grab our Spanish community word flashcards!

Printable Spanish Community Words Flashcards @ Look! We're Learning!

Don’t miss all of our other unit study resources on Pinterest!

Fun Weather Resources for Kids

Get more ideas for learning about weather from these great bloggers!

DIY Weather Binoculars – Adventures of Adam

Books about Weather for Kids – Craft Create Calm

Cloud Formations Tracking Log – Teach Beside Me

Free Weather Chart – Kiddy Charts

Traveling to Countries with Tropical Weather with a Toddler – Maria Magdalena Living Ideas

This post is part of the Movie and a Big Idea linkup from iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more movie-themed activities for kids!

Movie and a Big Idea linkup

Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Membership

Filed Under: Unit Studies Tagged With: book extension activities, cloudy with a chance of meatballs unit study, homeschool unit studies, reading, reading for kids, unit studies, unit study, units for kids

Hi! I'm Selena, a teacher and a veteran homeschool mom to four. I'm so glad you're here!
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