Stormy Weather Craft for Kids Inspired by Thunder Cake

Make a Weather Craft with kids that includes storm clouds, raindrops, and lightning bolts that shine for a fun crafts that’s perfect for spring, adding to a weather unit, or making after reading a book.

This stormy weather craft looks so cool when it’s completed because the clouds, rain drops, and flashes of lightning seem to glimmer off the page just like they might do when observing them in real life. This craft is an easy painting project for kids to make as they wait for a storm to pass outside, learn about the weather (see all our Weather Activities here), or to enjoy after reading a good children’s book.

Easy stormy weather craft inspired by Thunder Cake is so cool because the clouds, rain drops, and flashes of lightening shine on the page. (painting, preschool, kindergarten, spring, summer, learning about weather, book extension)

Is it officially spring yet? I certainly feel like it is because the weather keeps changing. I can’t decide what to dress the kids in. One minute they need a snowsuit and the next they are in shorts and a t-shirt. I would prefer it to stay nice and warm out, but the changing weather does provide the opportunity to observe lots of weather changes in the same day. My little preschooler (Little Dragon, age 4) is terrified of wind and storms so the other day when we were stuck inside we read Thunder Cake (affiliate link) by Patricia Polacco. It was the perfect way to wait out the storm and there is a real Thunder Cake recipe at the end of the book–yummy! The story is about a wise grandma and her little granddaughter, and how she teaches her to overcome her fear in the midst of a storm. This stormy artwork would also pair nicely with many other weather-inspired books. I added a couple of suggestions below. You may also want to print out our Free Weather Chart to continue talking about the weather.

Suggested Books:

Click photos: Affiliate links to more information on these books we love!

Thunder Cake Thunder-Boomer!Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs National Geographic Readers: Storms!

Stormy Weather Craft for Kids

Supplies:

Tin foil -affiliate link (these pre-cut tin foil sheets would be perfect for this craft)
Acrylic paint-affiliate link
Craft paper-affiliate link (I like using cardstock for crafts because the colors are so bright and the paper holds up better)

Scissors

Glue

Paint brushes

Click photos: Affiliate links to suggested supplies!

Reynolds Wrappers Pop Up / Foil Sheets Acrylic Paint Set American Crafts American Crafts Smooth Cardstock Fiskars 5 Inch Left Handed Pointed-tip Kids Scissors Elmer’s Glue-All Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue

Directions:

Trace a piece of paper out on the tin foil. I used a piece of cardstock to give the craft strength. Cut out the piece of tin foil and glue it to the piece of paper.

Give child green paper and scissors so they can make the ground for their painting. If they are too young for scissors they can rip the paper or you could help them cut it out. Once they are satisfied with their ground, they can glue it to the bottom of their tin foil paper.

Now the magic happens. Have children paint a storm using Acrylic paint-affiliate link. The tinfoil will turn into a work of art. My kid’s had so much fun painting on the tin foil because the colors pop, the texture is cool, and their artwork shines!

Whenever we are doing a book inspired craft I like to leave the book out where they can see it to give them inspiration. I don’t ever tell them that their artwork needs to look like the book, but before they start working we talk about certain features like the colors the illustrator used, the textures, and whether or not the picture looks real like a photograph or not. This helps teach them about art while letting them enjoy the process of creating!