What You Need

Blue Construction Paper

Cotton Balls

Glue

Tape

A Large Craft Stick

What To Do

Adult Preparation - Cut cloud-like shapes out of the blue paper. Each preschooler will need one cloud shape to use.

Preschooler Participation - Give each preschooler a blue cloud shape, a glue bottle, and a handful of cotton balls. Show them how to put a small dot of glue on the cotton ball and stick it to the cloud shape. Have the preschoolers continue until the entire cloud shape is filled with cotton balls. This repetitive activity is wonderful for helping preschoolers develop their small motor skills.

While the preschoolers are gluing the cotton balls to their cloud shape talk to them about clouds. Ask them what clouds look like before it rains. Explain to the preschoolers that clouds fill with water and turn dark colors when they are full. Tell them that we can see that it is going to rain by the color of the sky.

Variation - Water down some gray paint and put it in a spray bottle. Give preschoolers the choice to make their rainclouds look like they are full of water by spraying the paint onto the cotton balls to make a dark storm cloud.

When the Cotton balls are dry, help preschoolers glue a large craft stick to the back of the rain cloud. The cloud puppets can be used as part of a circle time about the weather or as puppets while singing songs about rain.

Additional Rain Activities

Preschool Weather Experiment - The Rain Cycle

Looking for an easy preschool weather experiment that has to do with rain? Rain is one weather phenomenon your preschooler is very familiar with. Rain keeps preschoolers inside, and might cancel fun weekend plans. But rain is vital for life on earth. Explain to your preschooler all about the rain cycle with this easy preschool weather experiment.

Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Learning is most durable when it's embedded in play. Don't pull children away from play to "do learning" — find the learning inside the play they're already doing.

• Read aloud daily for at least 15 minutes. This single habit is the strongest predictor of kindergarten reading readiness and long-term academic success.

• Answer "why" questions fully and honestly. A child who gets real answers to their questions develops deeper curiosity than one whose questions are dismissed or oversimplified.

• Screen learning (educational apps and videos) supplements but never replaces human interaction as a teaching medium. Learning happens most efficiently in social, conversational contexts.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the role of technology in preschool education?

High-quality educational apps and programs (PBS Kids, Khan Academy Kids, Starfall) used in limited, adult-co-viewed sessions can supplement preschool learning. However, interactive human experiences (conversation, shared book reading, hands-on experimentation, social play) remain far superior as primary learning modes. Screen-based learning is most effective when it is: co-viewed with an adult, limited to 30–60 minutes per day, followed by extension activities in the real world (after a nature app, go outside), and consistently educational rather than commercial.

How do I support a gifted preschooler who seems to need more than peers?

Gifted preschoolers benefit from depth rather than acceleration — instead of teaching next-year's content, provide deeper engagement with current concepts. A preschooler fascinated by numbers doesn't need grade-school arithmetic; they benefit from mathematical puzzles, spatial reasoning challenges, and mathematical exploration at their own depth. Social-emotional support is equally important: gifted preschoolers often have asynchronous development (advanced intellectually but emotionally typical for their age) and need appropriate peer interaction alongside intellectual challenge.

Related reading: See also our read-aloud guide and our kindergarten readiness guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• ✏️ Pre-Writing Development — Drawing, tracing, and early mark-making develop the fine motor control and visual-motor integration that handwriting requires — making every drawing activity a contribution to writing readiness.
• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.

Puppets are a great addition to circle time activities and music time. Preschoolers are more interested in activities that they can play a hands on roll in. Preschoolers will enjoy making these easy cloud puppets that can be used in a weather theme or incorporated into the singing of any rain related song.