O is for Octopus Letter O Craft

This letter O craft is a favorite! This O is for Octopus Kindergarten Letter Craft is easy to assemble and great for fine motor skills.

I really enjoyed this craft for facilitating further exploration and curiosity about octopuses. My kids were fascinated by it’s 8 tentacles and how such a creature would move around.

We extended our learning by watching Youtube videos of octopuses in both natural and man-made environments, and then tried our best to imitate their movement. I always love combining a craft with a gross motor experience – allowing children to fully immerse themselves in a concept and develop a more profound understanding of it.

Some teachers teach upper-case O and lower-case o as the same shape, while some prefer to teach a more oval upper case O. Either way, this craft works perfectly for both forms – but if you are trying to emphasize a slight shape change between the upper and lower case o’s, it may be worth your while to make two octopus crafts to reflect that and allow children to observe and explore that shape variation.

Letter O Craft – O is for Octopus

First, gather your materials:

• Construction paper, assorted colours
• Googley eyes
• Glue sticks
• Scissors, for the teacher
• Bubble Wrap, optional
• Paint, optional

I liked keeping the body of the octopus black and then changing things up with the colors of the tentacles. My kids picked their own colors, but a mix of scrapbook papers (if you had access) would be a really cool swap.

One of my kids observed that the bottom of the octopus’ tentacles looked like bubble wrap! This made a fun addition and you could either add some actual bubble wrap to the craft, or do as we did and dip some bubble wrap in paint to make an easy DIY stamp that leaves that cute bubble wrap print impression on the tentacles.

I cut the colors of tentacles that the children requested and placed them in a big pile. I encouraged them each to count out 8 tentacles for their octopus craft.

This is a great way to engage kids who are reluctant about counting, but excited for crafting.

Have children glue on the eyes and then assemble and glue on their tentacles.

As mentioned above as an optional extension, you can use some bubblewrap and paint to make the “suction cups” on the tentacles. You can do this before or after attaching the tentacles – but for us this made a great optional last step for those who wanted to continue crafting.

While this O is for Octopus Letter O Craft was a simple letter craft, it’s ease allowed us to spend more time inquiring and exploring more about octopuses and I loved being able to let those who were really enjoying crafting spend a few minutes extra with the sensory painting using bubble wrap.

Be sure to check out some of our other Kindergarten Letter Crafts, such as B is for Bunny, W is for Watermelon. or P is for Pig.

More Alphabet Fun

Looking for more activities to practice letters and sounds? Here are some of our favorites!

DIY Letter Sounds Practice Mat

Beginning Sound Puzzles

Robot Beginning Digraph Puzzles

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Jennifer

Jennifer Tammy is a trained psychologist and single mom who runs a Montessori preschool out of her home in order to stay home full-time with her daughter, Miss G. Every day she shares easy recipes, parenting inspiration, and hands-on learning ideas on her blog, Sugar, Spice, and Glitter.

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