After a two week break for Christmas and New Year’s my preschool students excitedly returned this morning. We had a great morning of learning as we started our study of the short sound of the letter “O”. Below are some of the activities we completed.
We began by reading the book Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus! by Julie Markes. It isn’t really about an octopus. An octopus is just one of the many animals mentioned in this cute story. The book talks about things children don’t often like to do like take naps, put on their shoes, or even brush their teeth. It takes these simple tasks and compares them to what it would be like if they were an animal. For example, if they were an octopus they would have 8 legs to put into a pair of pants instead of two. Or, if they were a tiger their mother would lick them instead of giving them a regular tub bath. The children were engaged by the story and it was fun for them to see what animal was next.
Next, each child made an octopus out of the letter “O”. I used the tutorial from No Time For Flashcards as a guide.
First, the children colored a letter “O” from Itty Bitty Bookworm. (I shrunk the letter to 65% of its normal size.) Then, I cut the letters out and the children glued them to a piece of construction paper and added wiggly eyes. Lastly, they glued on 8 tissue paper legs around the bottom of the “O”. I wish I had thought to have the children draw a mouth in the center of the “O”, but I still think they were cute.
I printed an octopus size sorting learning activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The children really enjoyed this activity. I covered everything with contact paper for durability.
We also sang an octopus song from this site.
My Octopus Song (To the tune of “Three Blind Mice”)
Octopus, Octopus
In the sea, in the sea.
To swim they use all 8 of their arms,
Their color changes to hide them from harm,
They live in the sea, not on a farm,
The octopus.
Lastly, we played Colors and Shapes Bingo. The children loved this game and it was great for several reasons. First, they had to be able to recognize the color and shape on their board before they could mark it. Secondly, it was good for the children to sit quietly in a group following the rules to the game. They really enjoyed this game and we will definitely play it again.
Wednesday we will continue our study of the letter “O”. Tommorow I will be back to with a post about our dress-up center.
