Sky Art
What do you see in the sky up high?
Cotton balls passing by like a bunny’s tail?
Long, gray streaks like hair in a horse’s mane?
Wispy, pink-orange shapes like rainbow sherbet ice cream?
Clouds take many shapes and sizes.
Some clouds are wide and thick and others thread-like thin.
Some clouds look round and soft and others stretched or ragged.
Cloud color changes with the shape, sunlight, and thickness.
White, gray, black, pink, orange, purplish-blue.
Clouds are made of tiny water droplets and dust.
How tiny are these water droplets?
Think of one raindrop falling on your nose.
Just one raindrop contains about one million cloud droplets.
That’s very, very, very, teeny tiny.
Fog. Have you ever walked in fog or seen a foggy day out your window?
Fog is the lowest type of cloud, hovering close to the ground with no distinct shape.
Some low-in-the-sky clouds that you might see on a clear, sunny day
Are cumulus clouds, fluffy and cotton-like.
What animal or object do you see when you look at these cumulus clouds?
A cloud becomes a fluffy cumulus cloud instead of a wispy, thin cloud
When the water droplets are in patches of moist air with breezes pushing upwards.
This makes them grow tall and puff up.
Other low clouds are usually gray and stretched across the sky.
These are stratus clouds and they sometimes bring mist or drizzle.
Can you draw some stratus clouds with a gray crayon or pencil?
More low-in-the-sky clouds are nimbostratus clouds.
They tell you that rain or stormy weather is coming.
These nimbostratus clouds are dark gray and bring lots of rain or snow.
Cumulonimbus clouds are even darker gray and look tall like a mountain.
Guess what type of weather these cumulonimbus clouds bring?
You would want to run inside before the thunderstorm begins.
Where do clouds go?
They float with the wind far away.
If they meet warmer air their water droplets turn into invisible water vapor,
And they seem to disappear.
Even at night clouds clutter the sky unless stars are shimmering.
Why are clouds so important?
Clouds covering the sun cool us like sitting under a shade tree.
And bring us rain and snow clouds for water.
Our world would not be alive without clouds,
And the sky would not be so colorful and glorious.
How beautiful the sky art that are clouds!
Cotton balls passing by like a bunny’s tail?
Long, gray streaks like hair in a horse’s mane?
Wispy, pink-orange shapes like rainbow sherbet ice cream?
Clouds take many shapes and sizes.
Some clouds are wide and thick and others thread-like thin.
Some clouds look round and soft and others stretched or ragged.
Cloud color changes with the shape, sunlight, and thickness.
White, gray, black, pink, orange, purplish-blue.
Clouds are made of tiny water droplets and dust.
How tiny are these water droplets?
Think of one raindrop falling on your nose.
Just one raindrop contains about one million cloud droplets.
That’s very, very, very, teeny tiny.
Fog. Have you ever walked in fog or seen a foggy day out your window?
Fog is the lowest type of cloud, hovering close to the ground with no distinct shape.
Some low-in-the-sky clouds that you might see on a clear, sunny day
Are cumulus clouds, fluffy and cotton-like.
What animal or object do you see when you look at these cumulus clouds?
A cloud becomes a fluffy cumulus cloud instead of a wispy, thin cloud
When the water droplets are in patches of moist air with breezes pushing upwards.
This makes them grow tall and puff up.
Other low clouds are usually gray and stretched across the sky.
These are stratus clouds and they sometimes bring mist or drizzle.
Can you draw some stratus clouds with a gray crayon or pencil?
More low-in-the-sky clouds are nimbostratus clouds.
They tell you that rain or stormy weather is coming.
These nimbostratus clouds are dark gray and bring lots of rain or snow.
Cumulonimbus clouds are even darker gray and look tall like a mountain.
Guess what type of weather these cumulonimbus clouds bring?
You would want to run inside before the thunderstorm begins.
Where do clouds go?
They float with the wind far away.
If they meet warmer air their water droplets turn into invisible water vapor,
And they seem to disappear.
Even at night clouds clutter the sky unless stars are shimmering.
Why are clouds so important?
Clouds covering the sun cool us like sitting under a shade tree.
And bring us rain and snow clouds for water.
Our world would not be alive without clouds,
And the sky would not be so colorful and glorious.
How beautiful the sky art that are clouds!
This poem is copyright (©) Bonnie Lindauer 2024
About the Writer
Bonnie Lindauer
Bonnie is a retired high school teacher and college librarian. Her debut non-fiction, picture book, "Hannah G. Solomon Dared to Make a Difference” was published in 2021 by Kar-Ben Publishers. Bonnie has also published several non-fiction articles for teens through adults in Animal Wellness Magazine; Dog Living Magazine; FACES: People, Places and Culture; and stories in Bumples Magazine and Guardian Angel Kids.
