My Very Own Octopus

FIRST GRADE

Activity
Read book
Discuss snowballs
How many arms does an octopus have?
Pose problem – how many snowballs if octopus has two in each arm?
Have children come up and place 2 cotton balls at the end of each arm
How can we count how many snowballs the octopus can carry?
What is another way we can count how many snowballs?
(Count by ones, skip count by 2s, count 2 sets of 8, count 8 sets of 2, count by 4s, etc)
Send children back to seats to draw and journal how they figured it out

Extension questions
Do all octopus have 8 arms?
What do octopus eat?
Where do octopus live?

MATERIALS:
My Very Own Octopus, by Bernard Most
Bag of cotton balls (at least 20)
Large octopus poster with 8 separate arms showing
Glue sticks

THIRD GRADE

Activity
Read book
Discuss snowballs
How many arms does an octopus have?
How many snowballs if octopus has two in each arm?
Pose problem – of you want your octopus to carry 120 snowballs, how many will be on each arm?

Extension questions
Do all octopus have 8 arms?
Can octopus really carry things in their arms?
Do octopus have bones?
How smart is an octopus

RESOURCES

WEBPAGES

Octopus crafts
Webquest
Pictures
Lesson
Facts
Spoof