Octopus...

On Friday we learned about octopuses!

 Since an octopus has 8 legs, we reviewed the number 8!  Each child took turns counting the numbers 1-8 on our number line...

 Then they counted 8 fingers...

 ...and crawled them across the floor like an octopus!

We also sang:

"1 arm, 2 arms, 3 arms, 4,

5 arms, 6 arms, 7 arms,

EIGHT!!!!!"

(Sung to tune of "One Potato, Two Potatoes.")

 I asked the kids what shapes they see on an octopus.  We searched for circles and ovals in the room.  S found circles on the car wheels...

A circle looks like the letter O!  O is for octopus!  I passed around the hands-on letter O's, and the kids made the letter O with different parts of their body.  The letter O with her legs...

 The letter O with her arms...

 The letter O with their mouth's!

 I explained to the kids that an octopus actually uses 2 of its arms as legs to walk and jump off of the ocean floor.  The remaining 6 are used like arms to grab, pull and push.  I asked the kids to explore what it would be like to dance around with no arms by holding both arms behind their back.  I played a song from our Ocean Commotion CD while they did this...

 We made an octopus windsock for our craft!  The kids got a good giggle out of the word "windsock!"  I figured they did not know exactly what a windsock is, so I showed them photos on the computer.

 First they cut 8 legs in their paper.  I am glad Mother Goose provided the kids with the lines of where to cut.

 Next, the kids added googly eyes, a face, and circle stickers for the suction cups on the tentacles!

 I stapled the windsock and added a string.  The kids loved playing with their craft!

  Next, we worked on the letter O page in our journal...

 The kids practiced writing the letter O on handwriting lines, and then drew an octopus with 8 tentacles.  They added small letter O shapes to the legs for suction cups.  They also completed the sentence, "The octopus is..."

 We learned that octopuses have been known to open lids, doors, and even use different types of tools with their arms.  Some even stack coconut shells and hide inside them for protection.  We watched an awesome video online of an octopus hiding in a coconut shell!  Mother Goose provided us with the link here.

 To test this out for ourselves we put our socks on our hands and explored opening jars with our arms only!

 The kids had a lot of fun opening and closing the containers and smelling the remnants of what was inside.  I rinsed them well, but some containers were still pretty fragrant!

 The kids just loved having their socks on their hands!  They are so silly!

 I worked one-on-one with each child in their literacy workbook.  They wrote a story about Ollie the octopus...

 I also helped the kids to complete a 1-20 dot-to-dot activity in their math workbook....

 I set out an octopus, transparent letters O, W, & X, magnetic bingo chips, and a magnetic wand.  The kids had fun rolling a die and placing the same number of bingo chips on the octopus picture.  They continued until all of the suction cups spots on the tentacles were full.  They also filled the spots on the letter cards.  They love cleaning their work space up with the magnetic wand!

 All day long I told the kids we were having octopus for lunch!  I couldn't trick them though...they knew we would just be having something in the shape of an octopus!  Hot dogs on mac 'n' cheese!

(Organic Mac 'n' Cheese, and Uncured Turkey Dogs.)

 After lunch we played with a new toy!!!!  Squiz is a new top-rated toy on the market right now.  I figured it would be the perfect toy to learn about the suction cups on an octopus!!!  I picked these up at none-other than Lakeshore Learning!  My favorite store on Earth!

 The kids played for a long time!  They loved them!  I encouraged them to come of with as many different creative ideas as they could with them.  First they loved sticking them to the container they came in...

 "Zombie heads..."

 R stuck his to the table and used them as controllers while he pretended to be driving a spaceship!

 J pretended to lift weights!

 N served drinks at her imaginary restaurant!

 Our song for the day was "No Bones Octopus" on our Mother Goose Time Ocean Commotion CD.  I told the kids to listen for the word "bones."  Each time they heard it, they threw their arms up in the air and then flopped them back down.

 Our book for the day...