Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club

I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a kid and loved the book. It’s such a fun silly book. When I was in high school the first sequel came out. At the time I was volunteering in a first grade classroom, so I had a valid excuse for reading the book. A second sequel came out right around when my kids were born, or it had been out and I discovered it then. Somehow the timing was never right to have a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club when my kids were the right age, so when my brother’s kids were old enough we had a book and a movie night with them. It was a solid hit.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club

When I taught public school this was a common book to teach in either first or second grade, so I’ve tagged it as both of those grades. It lends itself well to a unit on health, which is taught in both grades.

When we do a book and a movie with the cousins, instead of doing all sorts of activities (we learned from that mistake when we watched Jumanji and my kids came up with a terrible living board game idea that involved squirting their young cousins with a squirt gun), we read the picture book and then watch the movie.

Completely different from how I would do it if I did with my kids.

If I did it with my kids, I’d pick up the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club from Hide the Chocolate. We did her Mary Poppins study and loved it.

I’m always on the lookout for ways I don’t have to do all the planning, and aside from dreaming up the snacks for our book and a movie night, it’s all done for me.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs snacks

I had a blast with the snacks with this, since it’s a book all about food, there are a plethora of foods to suggest and do with the kids.

All of the snack labels are on my subscriber page (join my newsletter to get access AND get a coupon to get the Books made into movies bookmarks free)

• hot dogs- mini dogs in crescent rolls. I love this meal.
• pancakes- literally pancakes, yep super difficult, I guess I should have included syrup because it rained syrup sometimes
• meatballs- whoppers, in other circumstances they could have been literal meatballs, but I wanted some fun foods
• jello sunset- I bought jello cups, because it was easier
• hamburgers- this is probably the most iconic scene in the book (or it is to me). I turned nilla wafers into the buns, and then used chocolate frosting to look like hamburger patties (and again you could make mini burgers for sure)
• eggs- scrambled eggs

I’m actually rather surprised I didn’t make more food, this is a shame, and maybe I’ll have this movie night a second time and make more snacks. Either way, it was quite popular with everyone involved.

What snacks would you add to our Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book club?

More early elementary learning fun

• Patrick Henry, patriot and rebel
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
• Nathan Hale, American spy
• Liberty Bell
• Natural Dye history lesson (yes I did this with the kids in first grade and then again in middle school)

“Cajun Ribeye Steak with Mashed Potatoes” by wEnDaLicious is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.