O is for Octopus...and Oranges

With our busy agenda today we unfortunately didn't get around to Writer's Workshop, but we DID squeeze in a short Reader's Workshop, and a couple of super fun activities to boot.

I began by reviewing the letters we've learned in Summer Camp up to this point, and introducing the letter of the day by explaining some of its unique characteristics.  "This letter is one of the coolest because it can transform itself into a number of different things--it can be a number, or a smiley face, or a head, or a doorway...most importantly, it's super special because it has TWO sounds. A lot of the other letters only have one."

So we discussed the letter "Oo" and it's corresponding sounds:

We practiced writing the letter a bit, then moved onto our activities:

we noted what two colors can be mixed together to make orange

and made oranges that have an uncanny resemblance to a certain planet I know.

That took care of long "Oo."  We then moved on to the other sound that Oo makes.

No, it's not a jellyfish.  It's an octopus with jellyfish tendencies.

A bunch of them.

So what it's not easy to tell right off the bat that each of these is an octopus.  The point is that the kids learned a new letter, AND they received yet another lesson on crafty and practical uses for paper plates.