Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs...

The children’s book “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” by Judi Barrett is a great book for children of all ages! It is so well loved that it even inspired a movie. These Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs activities and lesson plans are based on the details of the book. 

This tall tale bedtime story introduces you to the town of Chewandswallow where all types of weather manifest itself in different food items throughout the day. A problem arises when the food starts falling from the sky differently causing chaos. The people of Chewandswallow must be leave behind and their town and load themselves onto boats made of stale bread and head to a new land where things are done very differently, in food stores! 

I love that you can use this book to branch out and learn so many things in a fun way. Adapt these activities for the age group you are working with and have fun. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Math Activities

Pancake Breakfast

Why not have a pancake breakfast? Have each small group of students follow a recipe to make their own pancake batter. Cooking is such an authentic way to experience math. You can even give them a chance to learn the skill of flipping pancakes with a spatula. Before they try it with a hot pancake on the griddle, cut circles out of craft foam and give them a spatula to practice flipping those over. 

Meatball Math

Use pom poms on a ten frame drawn on a paper plate to represent different numbers, complete meatball addition problems, or even challenge the children to write their own word problems for their classmates to solve. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Literacy Activities

Alphabet

Life Over Cs has a free alphabetical War card game that you can print. Each card has a food item that corresponds with that beginning letter sound. You could use these cards to play Go Fish, War, Memory, or even for sorting (find words that have 2 syllables or foods that you like/don’t like). 

Creative Writing

Write your own newspaper articles about the weather and events that happen in the town of Chewandswallow. It doesn’t have to be only including the details of the book, get creative and expand on what you already new and write about new events that were likely to happen after the story ended or in addition to what is included in the book. 

Write your own weather report. Reread your article to build fluency and present it to the class. You can even make a video weather forecast with a green screen like they did at Expect the Miraculous. I love the whole process of this and there is so much learning happening!

Brainstorm a list of different street names that could’ve been in the town. Use different foods and weather types to make the list. Make a map of the city using the new, invented street names. 

Writing Prompts

• Here comes a storm of…. 
• I’m glad it didn’t rain meatballs, but I didn’t expect it to…
• Today’s weather is ____ with a chance of _____.
• It was so unexpected! I looked up to the sky and saw….
• Watch out! Here comes…

Vocabulary Words

• abandon
• assorted
• gradual
• brief
• consisted
• incident
• portions

Comprehension Skills

Instead of asking comprehension questions, have your students fill out a graphic organizer with story elements or organize the events with a First, Next, Then, Finally chart. You could fill out the parts of a story map together as a whole class. 

​Venn Diagram

Use a venn diagram to compare and contrast the story of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a movie and as book. You can also use a venn diagram to compare the weather before it got dangerous and afterwards or the old town and the new town. 

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Science Activities

STEM Activities

In your building area, challenge students to build a house or school out of blocks. Throw pom poms at them, use a fan to blow tissues or balloons toward the structures, or fling craft foam shapes representing food at them. Can the buildings withstand the crazy whether?

Can you invent a machine that can be used to help clean up the food on main street? Give your students a variety of materials to work with to create a machine. Materials can be things like craft sticks, straws, rubber bands, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, index cards, brads, etc. Use the materials and tape to design your invention. Afterwards, allow time for the whole group to share what they created and how it helps the main characters clean up the mess. 

Science Experiments

A lava lamp experiment and cloud in a jar both go great with this book. Check out how Five Little Chefs experiments with these things after reading the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. 

Weather Unit

You can really dive deep into the top of weather. Learn different weather words and weather types. Read about common types of precipitation as well as extreme storms. Cloud formation and the different types of clouds seems like a natural thing to explore after reading the book. What are clouds and how do they form? Make a cloud identification frame that includes the 3 major cloud types. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Art Activities

Collage

Give your little learners pieces of white yarn that represent noodles and pom poms that represent meatballs. Allow them to create with these materials in any way they want. This is a great time to talk about “abstract art” and what that means. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Hidden Picture Page

This free printable is a fun activity to print, find, and color. Finding hidden pictures is so good for strengthening visual tracking skills that are needed for reading. 

Download your FREE Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Hidden Picture Page!

You can use these printable activities and ideas with any age group and grade level. I know teachers that have these plans and materials ready to go for a sub day. Being that it is one of my favorite books to share with my class, I never want to miss out on the fun and the fantastic discussions that are had so I don’t usually leave them as sub plans.