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It Looked
Like Spilt Milk
WRITTEN
BY
Charles G. Shaw
Shaw,
Charles. (1947). It Looked Like Spilt
Milk. New
York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Sometimes
it looked like Spilt Milk. But it wasn’t Spilt
Milk.
Using
this repeated pattern, the book leads readers to
explore multiple possibilities of what
“it” might be before revealing that it is
only a cloud in the sky. This simple book
effectively stimulates creative thinking and
problem solving as it promotes experiences in
visual discrimination and oral
expression.
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Activities
for Students
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GRADE LEVELS: 3
through 6
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Prediction
Plan
places to stop for children to predict outcomes or
problems solving. Show only the picture on a page
as you ask :What do you think the words will say
this time? What else could a cloud look
like?
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Retelling:
Using the Flannel Board
Read this book
aloud to introduce the idea of unknown shapes.
Figures for the flannel board story can be made by
cutting the suggested shapes out of white felt or
non-woven interfacing. Non-woven interfacing is
inexpensive, easy to use, and available at all
fabric stores. The shapes in the book may be drawn
or traced on the interfacing. Color and details are
quickly added with either markers or crayons.
Non-woven interfacing readily adheres to any
flannel board surface.
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Vocabulary
Development
1. Shaw uses very
few adjectives in his book. Using one of the shape
statements, such as “Sometimes it looked like
a rabbit,” brainstorm ten adjectives that
could appropriately describe that noun. Then choose
two adjectives that could go together to enrich the
statement, such as white, wiggly rabbit. Could
three adjectives work in that statement? Repeat the
process using different statements from the book.
2. Brainstorm a
list of two-syllable words to describe clouds.
3.Use the Alphabet time technique for clouds
(seeThe Kingore Observation Inventory page 81). For
each alphabet letter, write words that describe
clouds.
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Writing
and Reading a Classic Book
Write original
stories that model the repeating pattern of the
book. Encourage children to embellish their ideas
by adding more descriptive words and illustrating
their sentences. Children then read their sentences
to two other children. Compile the children’s
written sentences into a book and place it in the
library/ reading area of your room. Tape record the
book. Perhaps each child could read his/her own
page for the recording. Add the tape and book to
the reading area of your room.
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Writing
an Individual Book
List things that
both clouds and children can do. Then list things
that only clouds can do and things that only
children can do. Develop the ideas into a book
using the following format.
Clouds can
move in the wind.
_____Children
can also move in the wind.
Clouds can change their shapes.
_____
Children can
also change their shapes as they eat and
grow.
But only children can go to school.
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Oral
Language: Cloud-Watching Discussion
Allow
students to lay on their backs outside and watch
the clouds; or from the inside, find a comfortable
position and watch the clouds through a large
window. Guide a discussion with questions. Do
clouds look soft or hard; smooth or rough? What
other words could we use to describe them? Do they
have any pointed, sharp edges? What objects or
animals have you seen in clouds? How do clouds
move? If we could do imaginary or magic things, how
could we make the clouds move? Why are some clouds
gigantic and some so small? Where are clouds at
night?
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Cotton-Puff
Clouds
Stretch
apart a cotton make-up puff to resemble a cloud.
Ask: “What does this look like to you?
Let’s turn it around. Now what does it look
like?” Orally have students take turns saying
and completing: “Sometimes it looked like a
_________ but it wasn’t a
_______________.” Later, each child can make a
shape from a cotton puff, add details to complete a
picture, and write a sentence about the
picture.
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Personal
Analogy
If
I were a cloud, I’d look like a _____________
because____________________ .
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Attribute
Analysis
1.List
as many words as possible to describe attributes of
clouds. Try to list ten or more different ideas.
2.Write analogies for several different attributes
of clouds. A ______________is as ____________ as a
cloud. (Soft, thin, high, white)
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Critical
Thinking
1.Besides
clouds, what looks like spilt milk? (Spilt paint;
the grain in a piece of wood; stains on the carpet)
2.Which cloud shape in the book looks least like
what the author names it? Explain why you think
that. 3.Venn Diagram: List things found in the sky,
on the ground and both in the sky and on the
ground. 4. Develop an Advantages / Disadvantages
chart. Evaluate the most important advantages and
disadvantages of clouds. Ask children to explain or
defend each idea.
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Creative
and Productive Thinking
1.Provide
a transparency or large paper covered with
cloud-like scribbles. Let children help add details
to accent different shapes which may be perceived
in those cloud shapes.
2.Provide
torn white tissue paper pieces. Turn each around in
many different positions. Label on all four sides
what the shape looks like in that position.
3.Look
at the illustrations in the book upside down. Now
what does each shape look like?
4.Draw
what a cloud might see.
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Affective
1.When
I see clouds, I feel
____________because______________.
2.Orally
describe or write how it would feel if you were a
cloud moving through the sky, looking down at
people, being in storms, etc.
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Science:
Observation
Write
science journal entries based upon daily
observations of clouds for one to three weeks.
Types of clouds, amount of clouds seen, number of
days with no clouds, and images perceived in clouds
are examples of information some students might be
interested in recording.Talk together about what
children learned from their reading, observations
and journal entries. “What did we learn about
clouds that our journals
substantiate?”
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Graphing
Graph
the kinds of clouds most often seen in your area by
observing at the same time each day and recording
the results of your observations for two
weeks.
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Problem
Solving
“I
have white paint and blue paper. What are three
ways I could make it look like clouds? Show me
how.”
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Art:
Making UFOs (Unknown Funny Objects)
Materials:_White
paper cut out in free form shapes
_________Colored
sheets of paper
_________Crayons
or markers
_________Glue
or paste
One
at a time, hold up several examples of the shapes
and ask the children: What does this look like to
you? What could this be a part of? Let’s turn
it around. Now, what does it look like? What could
we add to make it look like an animal or person or
creature? Following the discussion, each child
chooses a shape, gets a colored sheet of paper,
pastes the UFO in the best location to assist the
final picture (top, middle of paper, etc.), and
adds the details to complete the picture. Then each
child dictates or writes a sentence about the
picture.
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Related
Literature
•
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi
Barrett
• The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola
• Dreams by Peter Spier
• “The Clouds I Watched this
Afternoon” a poem by Jack Prelutsky
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copyright © 2005 Bertie Kingore
All rights reserved. This website is for the informative and
promotional purposes of Dr. Bertie Kingore and Professional
Associates Publishing. No text nor images can be copied
without prior consent. PDF files that can be downloaded off
of this website are only to be used by the individual
teacher in the classroom.
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