It Looked Like Spilt Milk

by Chrles G. Shaw

Paperback, 1988

Status

Available

Call number

PBP

Genres

Children's Books

Publication

HarperTrophy (1988), Edition: Reprint, Paperback

Description

Uses illustrations and text to tell about the shapes of clouds.

Media reviews

Myself

Charles G. Shaw uses creative imagery to encourage the reader to use observation and describe cloud shapes as simple, everyday objects that are easily identifiable. Shaw compares shapes of the clouds to things such as a pig, a sheep, and a great horned owl among many others. These are all things

that even young children can imagine! The book is very simple to read and understand. Shaw writes “Sometimes it looked like a flower, but it wasn’t a flower,” which encourages the reader to compare and contrast clouds with things that we see in our lives. This book accurately depicts the use of observation to compare and contrast objects in the most simplified way. “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” is appropriate for preschool to third grade children, and can be used in science lessons relating to clouds and observation.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member r13

Great imaginative book with simple vocabulary. Students can easily model with "ink blots" and description

24 more

LibraryThing member wadeka01

It Looked Like Spilt Milk is a simply written and illustrated book that is appropriate for young elementary school students. While this book may be simple, it encourages children to look up at the clouds to find shapes of their own. Reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk is a great way to engage

students in a lesson plan involving clouds and/or weather.

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LibraryThing member mickmyster13

I remember reading this book when I was little. Each page does look like spilt milk, or like a white cloud in the sky. Some fun art projects could be made after reading this book. White paint on blue paper. Students could paint and then write a story about their painting. I think this is a book

that gets the imagination going and gets you to look at things in different ways. A very good book.

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LibraryThing member TorrieM

I would use this book for K-2nd grade. It teaches students to have an imagination. At the beginning of the story they think they are looking at spilt milk, but at the end it really is just a cloud. This book shows that a cloud can be anything you want it to be.

LibraryThing member aprilbrittain

It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw uses imagination to describe what clouds in the sky may look like and keeps you guessing until the end what it could possibly be. Each page of the book suggests what a cloud may look like accompanied by a brilliant picture.

I loved how the author would

describe what the picture looked like then tell you no that is not what the picture was. The use of the contrasting colors in the pictures really captured your attention.

I would use then in the classroom as a prelude to a discussion on perception and how each individual has a unique perception. I would also use this book to follow along with an art project using paint splattering on construction paper and then guessing what the shape looks like.

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LibraryThing member KellyKnox

This is a beautifully simple, elegant book that would be appropriate for readers across many age groups. Each page repeats the theme: a white picture on a blue background, and text stating that the picture looks like something in particular, but is not. Only at the end do you find out it is a cloud

in the sky. (Children who enjoy Little Cloud by Eric Carle might find these theme familiar.) The book is so simple, but so sweet. This would be an excellent book for very young readers, because of the repetition, and because it reinforces many of the words children learn very early on (bird, tree, sheep). But it also could be an interesting book for older children, to bring up the point of how things can be perceived different ways, and could lead into a fun activity of looking at clouds to see something, or in fact, creating their own cloud art.

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LibraryThing member anncampbell

It's a simple story that repeats the phrase sometime it looked like spilt milk etc, but it wasn't spilt milk etc. The phrase changes depending on the shape and eventually you learn that the descriptions are about a cloud. It shows how a cloud can change shape.

LibraryThing member Strims01

It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw is a picture book that could be used for all ages, but I would recommend using this book with young children grade level pre k-2. There is very little text and much of the text is repeated, however the simplicity of the book and pictures are helpful in

engaging the children to use their creativity.
This book is about clouds, and the images they may appear to be. This book would be helpful as an introduction to a young class of pre k or kindergarteners that are about to learn of seasons and weather change. This would also be a fun introduction for second graders that are about to start learning about different cloud types.
The Structure of this book is fairly simple, text is on the left page and the image is on the right. The background color is navy blue on all of the pages and the image and text are white. This book reminds me of an ink test and allows the children to use their imagination and create their own interpretation of the image.

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LibraryThing member McKennaMiller

I remember reading this book as a child and really liking it. I have a hard time reading concept books now because I end up skipping over it by myself to get to the end. What I really like about this book is how simple it is. This is a great book to begin reading with.

LibraryThing member sdglenn

Great for grades k-2. Helps kids identify shapes. Children can draw shapes and then later on name them. (romance representations)

LibraryThing member NMikolay

This book is for age’s four to seven, but younger children can enjoy this book as well. The book is about clouds taking the shapes of different objects. This book is a fun way to get children involved in the story by simply having them guess what the shape of the cloud looks like. This book opens

children’s eyes to look at clouds in a different way. After reading this book, I am sure that children's imaginations will go wild the next time they look up at the sky.

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LibraryThing member clapkj01

This book is very simple, but has such a good concept. It talks about all the different things that clouds can sometimes look like. It begins with spilt milk, then a rabbit, a bird, a tree, an ice cream cone, a flower, a pig, a birthday cake, a sheep, a great horned owl, a mitten, a squirrel, an

angel, and then back to spilt milk. I think many kids can relate to this book, because clouds are everywhere and are shaped like all kinds of things. I would definitely love to have this book available in my collection.

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LibraryThing member jlowens4

The story, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" is an information book about clouds. The book begins by showing a big white mess and saying, "It looks like spilt milk, but its not spilt milk." The story goes on just like this with different animals and shapes. Throught the book the students are trying to

figure out what it is. At the end of the story it tells us that its a cloud and that clouds look like different shapes. I really enjoyed this book and I feel like it is a great way to introduc clouds.

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LibraryThing member eevers

This repetitive book shows readers how different cloud shapes can appear like various objects. The text, "It looked like ____. But it wasn't ____" repeats with each picture/page.

LibraryThing member ashley3919

This is a great book to read when students are learning about clouds in Science. I read this book to my students and then they were given blue paper with white paint dropped in the middle. They had to fold the paper in half and then reveal what shape they made and write two sentences about it. The

book itself talks about the things clouds can look like.

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LibraryThing member szanes

Simple but dramatic pictures that trigger young children's imagination.

LibraryThing member vanessa6

This book is VERY SIMPLE!! It consists of only two colors, blue and white. They show the different designs you can see in things if you really look hard and at the end, it's just a cloud. Reminds you to lay out in the grass on sunny days and see what you can find in different clouds. It would be

great to introduce to children at young age when you are incorporating arts and colors by having them 'splat' paint on paper and tell us what it looks like. It'll bring out their creative imagination!!

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LibraryThing member KristinWhite

The students are able to look at the different shapes and try to find a picture within it. Students can put a blob of paint in the center of a piece of paper. Then they fold the paper and flatten it. When they reopen the paper, they will have to decide what they think the paint blob looks like.

Then after the paint dries, they can finish the picture by coloring around it.

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LibraryThing member pamela12286

This is a cute book. Many children have looked at the clouds and looked for shapes or items in the clouds. This could be a fun class reading, if afterwards you went outside and looked up at the clouds and looked for shapes. The book is made up of mainly images and without them this would not be a

very good book.

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LibraryThing member Turrean

An oldie but a goodie. I've read this to many preK classes!

LibraryThing member nicholew

I love this book, I just read it the other day in my class. I love to ask students what they see in the clouds and what their predictions are of what it will be in the end if it is not milk. We then do spilt milk paintings and they create their own with labeling.

LibraryThing member dukefan86

Fun little book for kids of all ages who have stared at the clouds and had fun finding shapes in them.

LibraryThing member ageoflibrarius

Book will keep kids guessing what the thing that looks like spilt milk is! Repetition will help kids' memory and can help them identify sight words.

LibraryThing member jstafiej

This fictional story goes through different shapes and discussing what the students might see. The students are asked, “It looked like a…” This repetition is nice for students because they are then able to guess what the shape may look like. After the shape is described the book then states,

“But it wasn’t a __.” The story then ends by saying the shapes were just a cloud in the sky. This shows the children that they are able to imagine many things in that specific type of cloud: fair weather cumulus clouds.

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LibraryThing member JaimeScheidler

A white blob on the page keeps changing shapes and then at the end you see that it's really a cloud.

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