The Letter "O" continued....

Octopus Streamers
Have the child make an octopus by knotting eight pieces of crepe paper together. Play some music and have your child do an octopus dance. 


Octopus Color Changes
Discuss with your child how an octopus will change colors to blend with it's surroundings. Cut four or five different colored octopus from construction paper. Set out four or five of matching sheets of construction paper. Ask your child to match the octopus with it's background. 


Here are some Octopus coloring pages.


Hand Print Octopus
Paint both of the child's palms and fingers, (but not the thumbs) the same color.  Have the child make one hand print with their fingers spread far apart.  Make the second hand print over the first, lining up the palms, but placing the fingers in the spaces between the first set of fingers.  After the paint has dried, the children can add facial features with a marker or black pen. 


Olive Taste Test
Have the children taste a couple different kinds of olives.  Have the children vote on which they like the best (or none).  Graph the results.


Olive Painting
Trace the shape of the lid of a container onto a white piece of paper. Cut out the shape so that it is smaller than the inside of the lid. Place a small amount of paint on the inside of the lid, then place the paper on the inside of the lid. Pour a small amount of paint inside of the bowl and place a few olives inside the bowl. Have your child turn the bowl upside down and shake. When finished remove the paper and allow to dry. (alt, use octagon or "o" shaped paper)


Octagon Art
Cut out an octagon shape for each child for them to decorate.  You can use orange materials, the reinforcing circle stickers shaped like "o"s, o shaped cereal or anything else.  


Octo - Octa chat
Talk about how the prefixes octo and octa mean "8".  An octopus has eight legs and an octagon has eight sides.  Have pictures of each and count the legs and sides together.  


Fingerprint Oak Tree
Use brown ink along the side of the child's hand to make the tree trunk. Use green ink on the child's thumb to make as many leaves as the child wants. Use brown ink on the child's pinky finger to make the acorns.


Eraser Oak Tree
Use brown ink along the side of the child's hand to make the tree trunk. Use green ink on the child's thumb to make as many leaves as the child wants. Use brown ink on the eraser of a pencil to make the acorns.


Oak Trees 
Cut out a piece of green paper to fit on top of the toilet paper tube. Cut two slits in the toilet paper tube about 1/2 inch down.
- Have your child decorate the paper with a brown marker to make acorns.
- Have your child press one finger into a brown ink pad and press onto the green paper to make acorns.
- Have your child press the eraser of a pencil into a brown ink pad and press onto the green paper to make acorns.
- Have your child color the paper with markers or crayons.
Slide the paper onto the tube.


Oak Leaf Collages
Cut out different leaf shapes out of fall colors and have the children glue the shapes onto another piece of paper.

Oak Leaf Rubbings
Have the child place a leaf under a piece of paper, and rub the paper with crayon, and the leaf shape will appear. This works much better with green leaves.

Oak Leaf Prints
Obtain a leaf for each child. Have the child paint the vein side of the leaf. Press the leaf onto a piece of paper to create a leaf print.

Oak Leaf Hands
Trace your child's hand onto a fall color of construction paper, and cut it out to make it look like a maple leaf.

Oak Leaf Tree
Use brown construction paper for the trunk of the tree, and tape up fall leaves to the wall to make a huge fall tree in your classroom.

Oak Leaf Painting
Have the children paint, using leaves as paint brushes. 


Oak Leaf People
Have the children glue a leaf on a piece of paper, and draw legs, arms, and a head to create a person.

Oak Leaf Mobile
Have the children attach leaves to a hanger with different lengths of string to create a mobile. Hang around the classroom.


Oak Leaf Crunching
Place leaves in the sand and water table. Encourage the children to examine the oak leaves and crunch them in their hands. 

Oak Leaf Crunching 2
Place dry leaves on the floor or go outside where there are leaves and let the children crunch the leaves with their feet. 

Oak Trees Throughout the Year
Show pictures of an oak tree in the spring, summer, fall and winter. Ask the children what season it is based on the picture. Talk about the leaves on the tree for each season. 


Oil and Water Bottles or Ocean in a Bottle
You need a empty clear soda bottle, a funnel, water, blue food coloring, cooking oil.  
Fill 1/3 of the bottle with water.  Add a few drops of blue food coloring.  Gently mix the food coloring and the water by gently tilting the bottle back and forth a few times. Fill the rest of the bottle with the cooking oil.  Put the lid on the bottle tightly.  You can seal the lid with a hot glue gun if you wish.  Have the children tilt the bottle back and forth and observe how the water and oil do not mix.  Alt.  You can add a wide variety of items to the water, like glitter, plastic toys (that fit in the bottle), different colors etc.

Oatmeal Art
Add a little oatmeal to paint to add some texture.  Have the children use the paint to create a picture.


Organize It
Provide the children with a variety of materials to sort and organize.


Jump Over the Ocean
Cut out shapes from blue paper or newspaper (you can have the children paint it blue). They need to be small enough for the children to be able to hop over. Then set them on the floor and ask the children to take turns hopping over the ocean.


Ocean Scene
Mix a little blue paint with saving cream.  Have the children work together to paint a large piece of butcher paper with the shaving cream/paint mixture.  After it is dry, you can attach some ocean animals, like an octopus, or jellyfish.


Ovals
Have children paint or color ovals orange.


Oval Sort
Cut out many different oval shapes from construction paper.  Have the children sort the ovals by color or size.


Oval Hop
Cut out many different oval shapes and affix them to the floor with contact paper.  Have the children hop from one shape to the next.


O Musical Shapes
Cut out many different shapes that begin with the letter O.  Octopus, owl, oval, O's, otter, one, oar, onion etc.  Affix these shapes to the floor with contact paper.  Play some music and have the children walk about the shapes.  When the music stops everyone finds a shape to stand on.  It is better to have more shapes than children.  Ask who is on an orange shape?  Who is on the letter "O".


"O" Prints
Set out a paper plate with several different paints poured onto it.  Supply the children with straws, cardboard tubes, or other circular items.  Have the children dip the object in the paint then press onto a piece of paper to make an "O" shape.