Saturday, November 20, 2010

Make an octopus from bubble wrap and paper


My NatureMan is particularly fascinated by sea creatures, and often chooses many ocean-life books from the library. We followed a side road of interest for awhile, earlier in the week, and learned as much as we could about octopuses.
Wikipedia, click for Octopus info
As you probably know, octopuses have no internal or external skeleton, which means they can squeeze-- slowly but surely-- through very small, tight holes. We tried to simply demonstrate this invertebrate's abilities by making paper and bubble wrap octopuses, and then squeezing them in between the bunk bed rails, through toilet paper rolls, and so on.

Did you know? Common octopuses will collect crustacean shells and other objects to construct fortresses, or "gardens," around their lairs? Very neat! So the kids collected blocks, and other small toys to build their fortresses. Natureman's "Octopus Castle" even had a moat. Can't beat that, although it's not scientifically accurate. ;)


I'm a firm believer in studying about the things that really interest kids.
I believe that learning can and should be fun, hands-on, and interactive.
I believe skipping down side roads of interest often yields the most memorable learning.
Have fun!

Featured HERE at Play 2 Grow! :)

3 comments:

Jen (emsun.org) said...

What a great project! I love this. We're studying the animal kingdom right now and I bet my children will adore this project.

Darcey said...

This is a great idea. This post was one of my favorites this week and I've linnked up to it here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2010/11/weekly-favorites-november-28-2010.html

Anonymous said...

I’ve meant to post about something like this on my webpage and you gave me an idea. Cheers.