Clouds...

Ah, summer.  A great time to laze on a hillside and look up at the clouds.

Clouds are an interesting context for language development as well.  One can list the different kind of clouds and what comes out of them (categories).  The process by which clouds are made, the water cycle, is a key curriculum topic (sequence).  They are also just sort of fun, because they are shapes and different people see different things in them (description).

Check out the Cloud Dreamer activity, part of the Invention at Play interactive website created by the Lehmelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, part of the Smithsonian Institution.  The key thing you can do with this activity is to create a cloud by clicking and dragging points, then send it to float across the sky. In addition to much descriptive language, SLPs could have a child describe how they plan to make a cloud look like an object before they ever touch the mouse.

I made an iPad cloud.  Sort of.  Apple probably will be making one of these too.

Cloud Dreamer could be put in the context of a classroom weather unit or used with engaging books (for younger children) such as Eric Carle's Little Cloud or It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.

Cloud Dreamer is Flash-based and is therefore NOT iPad-friendly.

Check out the other interesting activities at Invention at Play that also have language potential.