80+ Things in the sky list and free pictures (PDF)

Things in the sky

Recently, I have been teaching a lot of weather vocabulary and doing related activities. After an extensive search, I haven’t found a good list of things that we see in the sky so that is how this post has come about.

This collection of words can be used to help learners not only understand the world above us but also help them talk about the things they observe in it. These resources can prove handy for category games or teaching sky vocabulary, especially to children and ESL students. It is up to you on how to use these materials but I think they are quite handy in any case!

List of things in the sky

First of all, we have a word list and a free printable PDF of things that are in the sky. You have the option of printing the page above or simply copying the words you want from the list below. The list isn’t completely exhaustive and you can no doubt add to it yourself.

For example, the word bird is on our list but you can easily add dozens of bird species. The same can be said for insects, cloud types, and several other things in the collection.

Antennae

Ash

Asteroids

Astronauts

Balloons

Balls

Bats

Birds

Blimps

Boomerangs

Butterflies

Cable Cars

Chairlifts

Clouds

Comets

Constellations

Cyclones

Dragonflies

Drones

Dust

Eclipses

Electrical wires

Fireballs

Fireworks

Flags

Flames

Flying Foxes

Flying Squirrels

Frisbees

Galaxies

Gliders

Hail

Halos

Hang Gliders

Helicopters

Hot Air Balloons

Hurricanes

Insects

Jets

Kites

Lanterns

Leaves

Lightning

Lights

Meteors

Mirages

Mist

Moons

Nebulae

Paper Planes

Parachutes

Paragliders

Pilots

Planes

Planets

Polar lights

Rain

Rainbows

Rockets

Satellites

Seeds

Smog

Smoke

Snow

Space Junk

Space Stations

Spaceships

Spores

Stars

Storms

Sugar gliders

Sunrise

Sunset

The Milky Way

The Sun

Typhoons

UFOs

Vapor

Weather Balloons

Wind

Ziplines

Free flashcards of sky things

Below are 24 picture and word cards of things in the sky for kids and lower-level ESL learners. Once printed and cut out they can be used to teach sky vocabulary and help learners speak naturally about it.

One fun activity for learners is to arrange the cards by certain criteria. This can be by size (smallest to largest), speed (slowest to fastest), or by how high in the sky they are (closest to furthest).

You can also ask students to sort the cards into groups. This could be of what things are seen at night, during the day, or possibly both. The cards can also be grouped into things we can hear and cannot, and which things are easy to see and which are difficult. You’ll find that these kinds of activities not only help kids remember the words but also get older students talking in English.

One final idea is to use these flashcards to teach adverbs of frequency. How often do learners see these things in the sky? As a speaking exercise, you should get responses from learners such as – “I often see birds in the sky”, “I always see clouds in the sky”, “I hardly ever see cable cars”, and “I never see polar lights”.