In kinder 10 we did a project on the "Octopus". The first week we were back from Christmas break, we studied the letter O. The children saw a picture of an octopus in our Language Arts book, and began to ask questions about its tentacles and suction cups. We realized how little we knew about the octopus and that we had a lot of questions. Some of the questions that came up were:

 

 

   

   

 

 To look for the answers to these interesting questions, we decided to document everything we wanted to know about the octopus. We made a web. The web helped us organize the project's development and guided our study. The class brainstormed all sorts of questions; some of their questions were very similar; so we grouped them into eight different categories.

 

 

 

   

 

After we structured our web, we began to study various facts about the octopus. We focused on the parts of its body and the function of these parts. We also studied the interesting characteristics of this sea creature; such as how it changes it's color and texture to hide from its enemies (camouflage). The children were very surprised to learn this, and we did a journal entry about what it would be like to be able to camouflage. We also learned how octopi are able to eject their ink, and why they do it.

 

 

After a few weeks, the children became even more engaged with our study.  We read a book called An Octopus is Amazing". It took us three days to finish reading our book, and the children were very interested and amazed with all the information we obtained from the book. We found answers to most of our questions on our web.

 

 

 

  We continued to investigate interesting characteristics of octopi, such as camouflaging, ejecting ink, and tentacles. We also learned that the octopus has shown signs of intelligence, and they easily find ways to solve problems. Our investigation was mostly based on conversations in the classroom, and looking at books related to this study.

 

As our project developed, the children's interest increased. We thought of more interesting questions, such as:

 

 

We did many activities in the classroom related to our project. Most of the activities involved art.Drawing was a great way to obtain feedback about what the children learned. We made "observationaldrawings " and "memory drawings" .

 

 

 

 

 

We also made octopi out of clay. This activity helped the children to focus their attention to the octopi anatomy and dimensions.

 

We made puppets out of paper and wooden sticks. We kept them in our drama center, and the children are able to play with them whenever they like.

We created books, which included information that we learned about the octopus.

 

                              

 

   

We also read another book about an octopus, called I Was All Thumbs". The language in the book was quite difficult for the children to understand; but we tried to convert it into a much more simple language, so they could understand. This made it a lot easier for them.  This story helped us reinforce what we learned about the octopus. We did a journal entry about the book.

 

 

 

 

We reviewed the parts of an octopus body by giving the children each part separately. They had to put it all together, and they also made sure they weren't missing any of the parts. Some children tried arranging the parts before they pasted them on paper.

We went to the water tables and took the plastic octopi and other kinds of sea animals. The children worked in groups and we let them interact freely with the plastic animals, and listened to their conversations. We also asked them questions while they played and talked about the octopus. During the children's dramatic play, they showed how much they learned and they shared their knowledge with their peers.

 

 

 

Isabel, one of our students volunteered to draw an octopus. We all thought her drawing was beautiful, so we decided to enlarge it with the overhead projector. We photocopied it on an acetate sheet and enlarged the image on the overhead projector, and traced it on butcher paper. Since the octopus changes color depending on its mood, we all decided that the mood of our octopus would be happy". So we colored our octopus orange and cut it out.

 

 

"We studied the Octopus" until all our questions were all answered, the students interests were completely satisfied, and the children felt they had all the information they wanted. Our project lasted for four months.

K-10 students are now octopus experts. Ask us and see!