o is for octopus (year 3, week 23)

- March 25, 2017

We're continuing our ocean unit with a look at marine invertebrates. We mainly focused on octopuses, but we also talked a bit about jellyfish and starfish. This is our last ocean unit, but we're going to have to come back to it soon. The kids loved the lessons this month, and we hardly touched all the wonderful marine animals. I love it when the kids are engaged and asking a lot of questions.

Monday
We have landslides in our area, so the kids have been asking questions about what causes them. We watched this erosion experiment video.

Tuesday
Field trip to the doctor's office. The kids love getting to see the big skeleton they have there. We need to find a science museum, where they can see more bones and stuff. They're obsessed right now. I think we'll be doing a human body unit soon, too.

We watched Blue World Octopus video after dinner, while taking turns holding onto the Incredible Creatures Octopus. My kids loved the toy, and I was very impressed with the detailing. Every time the video mentioned a body part, the kids could find the part on the toy. The tentacles, the beak, the suckers, the eyes, or the brain- all were found and explored and played with.

The video also features the aquarium that we visited a few years ago for Valentine's Day. The kids didn't remember any of it, but really wanted to go again after seeing it on the video. I think we'll have to plan another trip soon. They've really been enjoying this ocean unit.

Wednesday
AWANA day!

In the morning, the kids asked to watch more Blue World videos, so I obliged. We watched one on sea turtles and one on penguins. The conversations the kids were having during and after these movies was amazing. They were comparing which animals have bones and which do not, which ones lay eggs and who drinks mommy milk, and which ones breathe air and which have gills. They talked about the animals who can go on land and which ones need to stay in the water and which animals ate each other. I loved hearing them process the last few weeks, and speaking so excitedly about what they had learned. This is why we homeschool.

Thursday
The kids have been playing with our Incredible Creatures Octopus all week. They've named him Hank (of course). He's been in their hands while they've watched movies, they've slept with him, and he's been in the bathtub. He was in the bathtub when I tried to find him for my #HowiSafari photo session. Although it's not a usual way that people use Safari Ltd products, their toys are durable plastic and easily go from mud to bathtub to bed as kids integrate them into their lives. My kids love the way the tentacles spring back when they stretch them out and the hardness of the beak.