Ocean Commotion - Octopus

Yesterday was Thursday which is our co-op day so we only got to the octopus craft.  We also had visitors for breakfast.  Grandma and Grandpa and GG too!  When the boys told Grandpa what they were learning about he pulled up a video of an octopus he had on his phone.  Then he told the story behind it.  When Grandpa and his friend were out fishing they caught an octopus. They pulled the octopus into the boat and it wrapped it's tentacles around his friends arm.  The octopus was calm and seemed to understand they were trying to help.  As soon as they got the hook out, the octopus let go of his friends arm and was read to go.  As it swam away it squirted ink.  Of courses they thought that story and the video were pretty cool. Here you can see it when they first reeled it in.

Today, Friday, we finished octopus day and learned about dolphins too.  But I will write a separate post about the dolphins or my post will be a mile long.

This morning their octopus wind socks were still at the table.  So as soon as they sat down Lachlan started pretending it was a real octopus and he was feeding him.

Here in Oregon, in Newport, there is the Hatfield Marine Science Center and they have an Octocam.  This is a live video feed, with two cameras.  One camera in their octopus tank and one outside looking in.  I pulled it up on the iPad and propped it up on the table.  I thought, we might as well see if we could see a real live octopus while we are learning about one. 

The first lesson we worked on was called Smart Octopus.  Mother Goose Time had us ask, how do you think an octopus uses its arms?  We talked about how they use two of the arms to walk on and the rest as actual arms.  I told them that octopus are very smart.  They can open lids, doors and even use different types of tools.  Some have even stacked coconut shells to hide in.

MGT had us put socks on their hands and pretend to be octopus.  Lachlan thought that was pretty great of course. 

First he tried opening his package of pens. 

 Then they both hopped down and tried opening the plastic containers I had set out. 

 Peter had a hard time getting his opened. 

When I was describing how intelligent octopus are I told them about how they sometime give them their food in a jar that they have to open.  This is a way to keep their minds working while they are in captivity.  The Hatfield Marine Science Center only keeps their octopus for a couple of months before they release them again.   They are just too smart, and like most animals, they don't do well in captivity.

Well Lachlan decided to feed his octopus the same way.  He got the container open, now he is going in to get his food. 

Eating a purple wooden block.  Yum!

I called them back to the table and we got out our new game.  This lesson was called Counting Suckers.  We talked about how an octopus uses it's suckers.  Then we rolled the die and put that many BINGO chips on the octopus.  For the first few rolls we were able to put 2 chips on the 2 tentacle and 3 on the 3.  But once we got 1 through 6 filled up and we started getting duplicate numbers on our rolls we had to start doing a little bit of math. 

At one point we had two chips on the number 7 tentacle and I asked Peter how many more we needed in order to fill it up.  Here he is counting to get the answer.

Next we went on a search for things around the room that are the shape of an O.  

 The bottom part of the stuffed octopus. 

 Mommy's coffee cup.

The thumb hole on the scissors.

Next we talked about the different parts on the octopus that are shaped like an O and then I called out different body parts for them to make an O out of. 

 Mouth.

 Arms.

Legs. 

Towards the end of our school time the doorbell rang.

What a beautiful little thing that is.  That right there is the best children's/education/preschool Pinterest board you could ever imagine, delivered right to your door.