Recipe Extension
Lunch
Octopus Inkers
●Vocabulary●
Ingredients: Octopus body: beef, chicken or tofu hot dogs
Octopus Ink: 1 small red bell pepper, ½ cup fresh blueberries,
1 Tbsp. olive oil, pinch of salt and pepper, 1 tsp. water
Materials: pot, grill or microwave; food processor or blender;
measuring cups and spoons; squirt (condiments) bottle
Directions: Cook hot dogs in pot, grill or microwave according to
package directions. Prepare octopus ink sauce: Chop red bell
pepper. Combine all ingredients. Process until blended until you’ve
reached desired ketchup-like consistency. Pour into squirt bottle.
Cut frank into an octopus shape by carefully cutting arms by twos,
leaving a head at one end: cut in half, then quartered, then cut each
quarter in half to make eight arms. Serve with squirted octopus ink!
octopus
ink
arms
ocean
hot dog
blueberries
bell pepper
sauce
squirt
suction
defend
memory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
● Helping Hands ●
● Skills Focus ●
• Child role: Process octopus ink
• Expressive Language
• Oral-Motor: mouth skills
• Phonological Awareness/
and squirt onto hot dog to eat!
• Adult role: Cooking/cutting
Literacy: syllable play
frank, bell pepper and
monitoring food processor use.
• Together: Eat, squirt & enjoy!
• Social Skills
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
● My Child’s Language-Learning Goals ●
• Child will recall facts about octopuses’ abilities and unique qualities.
• Child will use oral-motor skills to demonstrate unique skills of an octopus.
• Child will demonstrate the phonological awareness skills of segmenting and blending multi-syllabic
words ocean, suction, suction cup, octopus, octopuses, cephalopod.
• Child will demonstrate social skills through octopus games of Simon Says, Memory, Hide N Seek, and
Octopus Suck and Squirt!
● Try This! ●
Short on time? Simply add a little blue food coloring to ketchup, mix and serve as octopus ink! You can
find natural and organic food coloring online at www.naturesflavors.com.
Copyright © 2010 Sprinkled with Words, LLC
Recipe Extension
Octopus Inkers
● Oral Motor ●
● Social Studies & Health ●
An octopus is a cephalopod with eight
legs! How many arms and legs do
you have? What can an octopus do
with it’s legs? What can you do with
your arms and legs?
Play Simon Says to find out!
As a way for kids to learn about
the unique skills that octopuses
have, play a game of water suck
and squirt! Use a straw to suck
water (compare to the suction
cups of an octopus arm) and then
squirt at an outdoor target!
● Science Discovery & Math ●
Octopus Defense Facts: Octopuses
protect themselves from predators in a
few different ways. They can temporarily
blind an attacker by squirting ink at it.
They can camouflage their bodies to their
surroundings and they can shed an arm to
flee, growing another arm later.
● Visual & Fine Motor ●
Learning to use a variety of
kitchen tools can be fun and great
for coordinating visual and motor
skills for kids! Squirt bottles (for
condiments) can add a little extra
excitement to meal time by using
them as drawing tools on food!
● Bloom’s Taxonomy ●
(Comprehension Questions)
•
•
•
•
Who made the octopus inkers?
What ingredients did you use?
Why did you make octopus ink sauce?
How do octopuses defend themselves
from predators?
● Language & Literacy ●
• Word Play: Let’s take apart and put back together these multi-syllabic words:
ocean, suction, suction cup, octopus, octopuses, cephalopod. Show kids how
to blend and segment gesturing with your hands moving together and apart.
• Suggested Book to Read: My Very Own Octopus by Bernard Most.
• Interactive Reading Opportunity: Ask your child: What would you do if you had
an octopus?
● Social Skills ●
Octopus Memory and Hide N Seek! Did you know that octopuses are intelligent
animals that have short and long term memory capabilities? Let’s play a game of
octopus memory and Hide N Seek! Here’s how: List three places you or your child
might hide. Now, use your fingers to recall them alphabetically. Keep that list in your
head while the other person hides and then you go seek! Which place did you or
your child hide? Was it where you each thought the other was hidden?
Copyright © 2010 Sprinkled with Words, LLC
Language & Sensory Exploration Food Steps Octopus Inkers LABEL Label ingredients: hot dog, blueberries, red bell pepper, oil CATEGORIZE Categorize: kinds of meat, blue foods, fruits/vegetables, things you can squirt HOW DOES IT LOOK? Describe color: tan, blue, red Describe parts/pattern: 8 legs, spotted sauce Describe shape/size/consistency: thick, liquid sauce Use an analogy: it’s wiggly like jello; it’s thick like ketchup HOW DOES IT FEEL IN MY HAND? Describe tactile texture (hotdog): smooth, squishy Describe tactile texture (ink sauce): wet, thick, grainy Desribe tactile temperature: warm, cold HOW DOES IT SMELL? Describe smell: fresh, meaty, spicy, use an analogy: like the rain Describe smell: maybe it’s just “new” or “different” HOW DOES IT FEEL IN MY MOUTH? Describe oral texture (hotdog): chewy, smooth Describe oral texture (ink sauce): wet, grainy Describe tactile temperature: warm, cold HOW DOES IT TASTE IN MY MOUTH? Describe oral taste: refreshing, umami (savory), flavorful REMEMBER: NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS NEVER FORCE A CHILD TO LOOK<TOUCH<SMELL<TASTE<EAT ALWAYS ENCOURAGE ABOVE PARTICIPATION TO THE NEXT STEP MAKE IT PLAYFUL & SILLY & FUN GIVE AN ALTERNATIVE ACTION (e.g. pass the octopus or squirt bottle to a peer, make the octopus “swim” in the sauce, make your fingers “swim” in the sauce, pretend to squirt ink at a shark, move the octopus into the middle of the ocean)  2012 Sprinkled with Words, LLC