As our Weather Preschool unit came to a close, we spent a few days having fun with the book Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. In addition to a family movie day that began at breakfast and played out through the whole day (post coming soon), the kids completed some fun learning activities and had a blast. We served up a brain watering plate of spaghetti and meatballs for some measuring and counting fun. Affiliated links have been added for your convenience. Want to recreate it? Here is what you will need: -a plate, napkin, fork -pot or bowl -ladle/spoon -yellow yarn or cooked spaghetti -red pom poms -some kind of manipulative to use for measuring + a ruler if you wish (small blocks, pouch lids, paper clips etc) -our free printable meatball number cards First start by setting the table with your plate, napkin, and fork. You can even add a tablecloth for extra pizzazz. If you are using yarn, which I highly recommend for less mess, cut it into different sized pieces and place on a plate. We picked up these fun gingham style plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree, but you can use any type of plate you have. Place ten red pom poms in a pan or bowl. We used a play kitchen pot and ladle from my kids toy kitchen set. We added a play pot holder for added fun. Use your fork to pull a piece of “spaghetti” off the plate and lay the piece out straight across the table. Using the manipulatives you chose (we used fruit pouch lids), lay them down side by side to measure how long your piece of spaghetti is. Repeat this with the other pieces of spaghetti. You can also discuss how to measure with a ruler if you feel your child is ready for that. Once you have measured all of the spaghetti and talked about the different sizes, you can move on to adding some meatballs to the top of your spaghetti. Print out the meatball cards printable from the end of this post and cut them out. Mix up the cards and have the child pick a card from the pile and scoop that number of “meatballs” on top of the spaghetti. This is a great way to practice counting, number recognition, and fine motor skills. We hope you have as much fun with this activity as we did, but just remember if you don’t want to lose your meatball, be careful not to sneeze ;-)