O is for Octopus

The last week of November we studied ocean life, and octopi in particular. We kicked off the week by learning online as much as we could about an octopus (including a video of an octopus playing with Mr. Potato Head, just like the one in the aquarium near Grammy Sally and Grampa Mark!). When we knew all we could retain, we made a report. We used 3x5 cards to write down everything we had learned. Then we arranged the cards in the order that made the most sense. Next, we listed the facts in order on a poster board and the kids drew relevant pictures of octopus life. We presented our project to Daddy and even developed a quiz for him to take afterwards, by turning each fact into a question.

We read in the Bible verses like Psalm 69:34 “Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas and all that move in them” and we discussed how amazing octopi and other sea creatures are, and that their amazing-ness actually is a praise to God. Our words to remember were “Even the octopus praises the Lord”.
Other fun activities we did were a sea mural, hot dog octopus treat, and watching the movie “Deep Sea 3-D” together. We talked a little about seahorses and how the daddies of lots of fish care for the eggs until they hatch. This lesson is a good lead-in for next week’s W is for water!

Here is a link to the directions for hotdog octopi (from Anika)

Here is the mural we made of ocean life. If you click it to enlarge you can look for 2 seahorses, a wolf eel, an octopus, a sea star eating scallops, 2 nudibronchs, sea urchins, sea anemones, a puffer fish, a moon jelly fish, a squid, a seal, a manta ray, a sting ray, a whale, a dolphin, a school of fish, a grouper, a sea turtle, coral, sea weed, real sand, a shark, a submarine and a very unlucky diver! Actual mural size is 17" x 44"