Letter of the Week A-Z Series: O is for Octopus -

Today I am sharing our Letter O is for Octopus crafts, activities, and printables for preschoolers and toddlers. We made a letter craft (and I have the pattern for you), we played a sorting game using a suction cup to make it extra fun, and we painted an octopus using Q-tips to work on our fine motor skills.

Letter O Sight Words

Free Printable: Letter O Sight Words

Ideas for printable:

Place word and matching picture out when doing an activity that matches the word
Color the cards
Read the word together and match the word with the picture
Point and name the letters on the card
Write the letter of the week on each card
Write the word on each card

Find all our Letter of the Week A-Z Series here.

O is for Octopus

Pin Me Please! 🙂

Suggested Books:

Octopus’s Garden

, Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus!

, Octopus Soup

(Affiliate Links-click for more information)Suggested Song: Octopus’s Garden (Youtube video by TheClemmer) and if you want to show your kiddos a cute video of an octopus check this out Little Octopus Climbing Over Rock (Youtube video by Parry Gripp)

O is for Octopus Craft

Free Printable: O is for Octopus Craft

Objectives: Letter O recognition, Creativity, Fine motor skills

Age Group: Preschool

Supplies:

Craft paper
Googly eyes
Ribbon

Glue

Scissors
Pen

Directions:

1. Print the pattern on craft paper and have child cut them out. You may need to help cut the bottom of the octopus out. I was thinking it was going to be challenging for Little Tiger (age 4) but she didn’t need my help at all.

2. Have child glue googly eyes to the front of the octopus and use a pen to draw the mouth.

3. Cut out 8 pieces of ribbon and glue them to the back of the octopus.

4. Glue the octopus to the letter O. If you would like, you can also glue the craft to a piece of craft paper.

Octopus Suction Cup Sorting Game

Objectives: Letter O recognition, Creativity, Fine motor skills

Age Group: Preschool

Supplies:

Flashcards

Suction cup (I cut ours off a bath toy)
Wire twist tie or ribbon
Octopus toy (optional)

Directions:

1. Attach the suction cup to one arm of your octopus. If you don’t have an octopus toy you could make an octopus out of paper or just explain that octopuses have suction cups on their arms.

2. Place 6 or more flashcards on the table and ask the child to locate cards and use the suction cup to pick it up and put it into a discard pile.

My daughter had tons of fun using the suction cup to pick up the cards. Eventually we removed the suction cup from the octopus to make it easier to use. I would ask her things like, “Find all the words that start with the letter C” or “find everything with yellow on it.” Whatever your child is working on, you can adapt this activity for all types of themes like letters, colors, shapes and so forth.

Octopus Fine Motor Skills Painting

Pin Me Please!

Free Printable: Octopus Fine Motor Skills PaintingObjectives: Creativity, Fine motor skills

Age Group: Preschool/Tot School

Supplies:

Q-tips & paint or
Cereal & Glue

Directions:

1. Print out the printable and give to child to decorate with q-tips and paint or cereal and glue.

My kid’s picked paint when given the choice to use paint or cereal. My daughter took her time making sure to decorate each dot. My son started out painting nice and neat, and then choose to paint quickly with large motions (I took a picture and his hand looks like one big blur across the page :). I love seeing how my kid’s do the same activity differently based on their age and personality. As soon as he was done he was back playing with his cars.