Ms. Morris' Classroom Library

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett is about life in the wonderful town of Chewandswallow. Instead of snow, wind, or rain, they get a different kind of weather that falls from the sky three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The only bad part about living in Chewandswallow is that the people don't get their choice of what they'd like to fall from the sky: it may snow mashed potatoes, or rain juice or soup, or there might even be a storm of hamburgers that takes them by surprise. No one is too worried about the weather, until it takes a turn for the worse, the portions of food get larger and larger and fall faster and faster, until everyone in the town fears for their lives.

Guided Reading: Level M

Classroom Activities:

Learn about different types of weather, and how to stay safe during storms.

Students can keep a running record of what they ate for the school week. When completed, each student can create their own journal. The journals can be illustrated with the different foods and shared with partners.

Have the students read the thermometer at the same time every day for the next two weeks and record the temperature on a sheet of paper. At the end of two weeks have the students help you plot the readings on a graph. Discuss the graph and determine which days had the highest and lowest readings. Discuss any trends in the temperature and possible reasons for them. For example, you might notice that it’s getting warmer or colder as the days progress.