Welcome back to the Summer with Supermom Series! Each day this summer, I will be sharing with you one simple idea you can use to spend some quality time with your kids!
Day Four of Summer with Supermom
Activity: Cloud Watching
Suitable For: 2+
Skills: Observation, descriptive language, comparison
How To: Take advantage of the summer weather and go cloud-watching with your kids! When was the last time you stopped to find the shapes in the clouds? (I mean really and truly relaxed and just enjoyed the clouds?!) Let’s take some time to teach our children the simple joy of observation….whimsical observation…Spread out a big blanket or hit the hammock and stare up into the heavens. Point out the shapes you see and encourage their imaginations…(Don’t discredit their ideas as they call out what they see!) Kids who sometimes need strict guidelines may struggle at first, but lead by example and show them that this activity is about fun and creativity. Talk about the shapes you see using as descriptive language as possible. Use lots of adjectives as you describe what you see. Ask your child questions about what they see. Encourage them to tell stories about the cloud shapes. Never underestimate the importance of imagination! (It is the foundation of story-telling, and can build early interest in reading and writing!)
Extensions: Have your children keep a cloud journal! Keep the journal in a place that you can easily pull it out on cloudy days. Have your child draw a picture of the clouds that they see, and then have them WRITE about them! Encourage lots of descriptive language!!
Teach your children the different types of clouds! Point them out as you see them, and teach them what type of weather yields the different clouds. Here is a website with some great cloud info for kids! Cloud Website
Read the book, “It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. This would be a great preface to this activity! I used to do this with my kindergarten students each year!
Another great idea is to pull out the paints and crayons and have your kids sketch the clouds they see!
Examples: The sky is the limit (literally!) Talk about what you see and use your imagination!
Thanks for sharing this activity. We love that book, and we also love Little Cloud by Eric Carle. What a great activity for a summer day!
My son just loves the sky! Anything and everything about it. We do cloud watching most days only because he is so captivated by the sky (he is 26 months). We play ‘I Spy’. He finds all kinds of things – although I am pretty sure he makes most of them up (he seems to see a lot of umbrellas). But still he is very cute and its fun to lie on the grass together.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Hope to see you again next Friday for our Outdoor Play link-up
I never thought about doing this with my kids.. so simple and perfect for quality time! Thanks!