An octopus has eight legs and so do we!

A neat way to learn about the octopus and build teamwork in your classroom!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we read two books about an octopus and in our second book we learned that an octopus has eight legs or technically eight arms with suction cups (squids have tentacles)

Introducing a Story

After reading the book My Very Own Octopus by Bernard Most, we asked the children if they would like to have a pet octopus too! Most of our students did not wish to have a pet octopus but they did want to tell us about their pet dogs, turtles, or other pets they had…

As we read the book, we discovered that because an octopus has eight legs, he can do lots of things that we can’t do with only two legs (or arms) like hold eight different things at the same time or shake your hand with eight different hands. However, even with all the cool things a pet octopus might be able to do, our students still preferred having a pet dog or turtle…

Expanding on the Story

But when I told the children that they actually can have eight legs, they told me that this could not be possible. The children were certain that they could only have two legs so I set out to prove to them that they could indeed have eight legs…

We started by selecting four children to sit back to back on the floor and counted how many legs we now had in all. Then the children were invited to stand up, hook arms and try walking with all eight of their legs…

Working Together

Have you ever tried walking with eight legs? This is not an easy task! It requires some coordination, cooperation, and lots of giggles along the way…

And who decides which way you are going to go when you have four heads to work with, too?

Practicing 1:1 Correspondence

Now that we knew we could have eight legs like an octopus, the children took a few minutes to count out eight legs for our felt board octopuses and then they were off to go and explore in our centers…

Available on Amazon

Links to Grow On

O is for Octopus by Teach Preschool

Simple Spiders (that look like an octopus) by Teach Preschool

Jellyfish in a Bottle by Boohm’s play blog

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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