Hanging out with an octopus

As I mentioned before, we have been exploring a broad range of under the sea and water type activities and one of our mornings was spent exploring and making the popular sea creature called an octopus!

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

We had two books selected for our study of an octopus but the one the children spent the most time wanting to discuss was “An Octopus is Amazing” by Patricia Lauber.  Mrs. Courtney and I hadn’t planned on actually reading this book to the children but rather take a picture walk to talk about different types of octopuses (or octopi).

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

However, the children (Our Prek Class) asked so many questions as Mrs. Courtney walk them through the illustrations of the book that she pretty much ended up reading the entire book after all…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Some of the facts that were in the book were hard for the children to believe. Like they could not wrap their mind around the fact that octopuses start off as tiny as a flea and that some never grow larger than one to two feet long…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

The children also learned that octopuses have suction cups on their legs they can use to grab hold of things similar to how we use a suction cup to hold up our pictures on the windows. Our book told us that in one study, an octopus is so smart that he used his suction cup to open a jar to get to the crab that was inside the jar. So we tried opening a jar too using a suction cup…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

It always so much fun when one book can lead to so much discussion and discovery. As part of our morning discussion on octopuses, the children made a paper octopus that they could take home at the end of the day…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

The children cut eight legs (seven lines) on their paper stopping right in the middle of their paper. This process was very much a process about following directions and cutting on the lines but my prek students were loving the process from beginning to end…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Then the children added dots to each of the eight legs to represent the suckers we had talked about in our book…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Once the children added as many suckers as they liked to each of the eight legs, the children added a face to their octopus..

 add a string, and whew - the octopus was finished...

Some even ended up with whiskers…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Then the children curled up each of the eight legs…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Stapled the octopus body closed…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Punched two holes, added a string, and whew – the octopus was finished…

Hanging out with an octopus by Teach Preschool

Some of the children preferred to put their completed octopuses in their cubbies and some of them chose to hang them in the window for the morning. But everyone took them home at the end of the day…

 add a string, and whew - the octopus was finished...

And what do you think happened after all the time making an octopus?  Well most of the kids went off to play in one of our other centers but this little guy went off to the art center and made another octopus all by himself…

 add a string, and whew - the octopus was finished...

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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