Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Lesson Activities

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The Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett, was one of my favorite books when I was a child. My kids loved it too! The idea of noodles and doughnuts falling from the sky sounded so amazing.

Wouldn’t watching the weather forecast be more interesting if we saw that we were going to be served pizza and ice cream sundaes?

Technically, this book is set in the winter, which might make it seem like an odd choice for the first book in my Book-Based Summer Activities for Kids series. However, it is such a family favorite that I couldn’t resist including it.

Read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and then do whichever activities sound like fun to your family. These activities can also be used for lesson plans.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Book Activities

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Create a tall tale

The ‘meat’ of the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book is a tall tale bedtime story told by Grandpa. The book calls the story a tall tale, but it doesn’t quite fit the characteristics of a tall tale.

Typically, a tall tale contains:

  • A big dose of exaggeration
  • First-person narration
  • Legendary figures, real or fictional
  • A main character who does something amazing

Challenge your kids to create their own tall tale. This would be a perfect family writing activity to do during a writer’s workshop!

Draw a town and add food stickers

The illustrations in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs can be pretty hilarious. Kids are sure to giggle as they turn the pages. The people of Chewandswallow definitely live in a unique small town!

Encourage your kids to draw a picture of a town and then add food stickers. They can even draw one of their favorite scenes from the book.

Consider starting a compost bin

In the town of Chewandswallow, leftovers are handled in a unique way. After every meal, the sanitation department gathers up all the food lying around town and puts it to work. First, they feed the town animals. Then some of it is used to feed ocean animals. Finally, whatever food is left is composted to create rich soil.

This is a great opportunity to start a compost bin. Here are a few ways to build a compost bin, but #3 seems like the simplest option for kids.

Have a ‘meatball’ fight

While I’m sure some kids would love to have a real food fight, that sounds messy. How about a pretend meatball food fight?

Use red and brown pom poms as meatballs and let the kids go wild. It is sure to be a fun activity, and clean-up will be quick and easy.

While a food fight doesn’t happen in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book, I imagine the children in the town of Chewandswallow participated in food fights on a pretty frequent basis.

Make houses out of bread

Towards the end of Grandpa’s story, life is getting pretty rough in Chewandswallow. The villagers need to escape, so they sail across the sea on peanut butter sandwich boats. Once they reach a new land, they need homes.

Apparently, stale bread makes a great temporary building material.

If your kids like playing with their food (mine always did), they might like to build a house out of bread. There are a few options:

  • Toast slices of bread and create an A-frame style house
  • Slice peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and try to use the pieces as building material
  • Use peanut butter and jelly as ‘paint’
  • Try adding details to the bread house with food-grade markers

Let kids choose the meal

Towards the end of Grandpa’s story, meals got pretty weird. I suppose that is bound to happen if meals are delivered by severe weather patterns.

Let kids create their own random meals. Each family member can contribute one idea. Hopefully, this will create a meal that everyone enjoys.

Watch the movie

After reading the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book, have a family movie day and watch the movie. There is even a cartoon series based on the book.

Animated movies are a fun way to bring a children’s book to life.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club

Put an educational spin on the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book by participating in an online book club. This book club teaches all about clouds. The link above or clicking on the image below will take you to the course page with more information.

Grab a copy of the book from your library and sign up!

Create a Venn Diagram

Challenge your kids to create a Venn diagram for daily life in the town of Chewandswallow. One circle will be for characteristics of life in Chewandswallow. The other circle will be for characteristics of life in their own town. The overlap area will include anything that the two towns have in common.

Comprehension Packet

This free Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs comprehension packet contains language arts activities such as vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and a writing activity.

Grandpa’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook

Food was a large part of the original Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book, and now you can create a few of the iconic recipes with your kids! Gather your whole family around the kitchen table and enjoy these fun foods. Some of the recipes include:

  • Saturday morning pancakes
  • Snowy mashed potatoes with sunrise
  • Foggy pea soup
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs activities written underneath a picture of the book cover

Write a Newspaper Article

This great book provides an excellent opportunity for kids to write a newspaper article. Ask them to write an article describing the odd weather patterns in the magical town of Chewandswallow.

Newspaper articles are a great writing project for kids who like nonfiction because they stick to just the facts. This is another way to check comprehension skills to make sure kids understood what was happening in the book.

Weather Unit

This fiction book can lead to a great scientific weather unit. I love when we can combine subject areas!

The weather unit might include:

  • Common types of precipitation
  • How to read a weather report
  • Types of weather

Related – How to Create a Unit Study on Any Topic

I hope you enjoy these Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs activities!

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Welcome! My name is Jennifer. I am a teacher at heart. Before my children were born I was a public school teacher. Now, I am a homeschooling mom of two.