THE ADORABLE DUMBO OCTOPUS
Welcome to our “Amazing Ocean Camp – Dive into Midnight Zone” series – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities on the ocean’s midnight zone! For this day, we took a deeper look at one of the midnight zone’s arguably cutest inhabitants – the dumbo octopus! We also learned about other octopus characteristics, so that we could compare.
Like most of our days, we have a mix of activities to introduce the topic and keep the kids learning throughout the day. For this day, we read through parts of two nonfiction books about octopuses and the scientists who study them, watched a few videos on dumbo octopuses, read a few web pages, created a few octopus crafts, and performed an easy and fun (though wet) science experiment. Read on to check out the fun!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 But the gist of our day is having our kiddos focus on some work books or online learning tools in the early morning, an intro to the day’s theme after they were done, some videos around lunch time, and themed activities (reading time, writing time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments) in the afternoon. Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Many kids may be familiar with an octopus and its famous characteristic tentacles, but if you haven’t yet heard or seen videos/photos of the dumbo octopus, you’re in for a real treat! This super cute octopus differs slightly from other octopuses (they don’t squirt out ink) and have adorable fins (that look a bit like ears). And, while you can definitely find more information online about these charming little creatures, they do live in deep waters, on the ocean floor and so there’s still much more to learn about them!
Also – fun fact – we’ve been including some episodes of the Octonauts in some of our suggestions for videos to watch this ocean week. The octonauts are a group of adorable cartoon animals that explore the ocean. It turns out, one of the characters is actually based on a dumbo octopus – Professor Inkling! Check it out: Octonauts – Meet the Crew!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
These two are short videos from actual deep sea studies. Our kiddos had a great time viewing both the actual footage from explorations!
- Rare Dumbo Octopus Shows Off for Deep-sea Submersible | National Geographic by National Geographic (2m)
- Shy Octopus Hides Inside Its Own Tentacles | Nautilus Live by Nautilus Live (2m). While we did pick this one video, the Nautilus has a few other dumbo octopus videos and is a great resource for ocean exploration videos! It’s a program designed to explore the ocean and sponsored by several organizations while also sharing videos with the public through their channel!
This one is a web page with an audio poem, a few facts towards the bottom, as well as a super cute coloring page to print out!
- Audio Poem – Dumbo Octopus from smartypantsmagazineforkids.com
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
Our themed snack of the day was actually more of a meal — we had some mini burgers as well as curly fries for the tentacles.
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
For our books of the day, we couldn’t find any books specific to dumbo octopuses, so we picked a few books on octopuses. We also included a few web pages with a good deal of information and facts, though younger kids may need some help reading through them.
- The Octopus Scientists (Scientists in the Field) by Sy Montegomery
- Octopuses: Animals That Make a Difference! (Engaging Readers, Level 2) by Ashley Lee
- Website: What is a Dumbo Octopus from wonderopolis.org
- Website: 5 Awesome Dumbo Octopus Facts from octonation.com
- Website: Dumbo Octopus: Online Learning Center from aquariumofthepacific.org.
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: OCEAN,, MIDNIGHT ZONE, OCTOPUS, DUMBO OCTOPUS, TENTACLES
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Imagine Dumbo the elephant could meet a dumbo octopus. What do you think they would say to each other?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
- Octopus Wood Cutouts: We used a few octopus shapes from the Sea Life Wood Cutouts Set and let the kiddos decorate with regular AND glow in the dark paint.
- Perler Bead Octopus: We had an octopus perler board from a Perler Beads Ocean Buddies set that we had purchased and used on a different day and so brought that out for the day. While the tentacles do look a bit different from a dumbo octopus, it was still a cute and fun craft for the day.
- Dumbo Octopus Coloring page: this adorable printout came from smartypantsmagazineforkids.com – the same webpage where we listened to the audio poem: Audio Poem – Dumbo Octopus. These super cute creatures, once colored, made their way to our week’s midnight zone wall 🙂
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
- Jet-setting Cephalopods by sciencefriday.com. A simple experiment using plastic bottles and balloons to show how an octopus (or squid) moves through water.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Ocean Ideas or DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
