World Octopus Day was actually on October 8, but I was out with laryngitis that week, and one of my coworkers covered my Outdoor Musical Storytime. I got to revisit it this past week for my Family Storytime though. There are so many wonderful picture books about octopus!

Here’s what we did:

Books:

Mysterious, Marvelous Octopus by Paige Towler

I love this beautiful rhyming, nonfiction picture book featuring colorful photographs of different types of octopus. I asked the kids to point out their favorite octopus species from the collection of pictures at the end.

Octopants by Suzy Senior; illustrated by Claire Powell

This rhyming story about an octopus’ search for suitable underwear got lots of laughs from the kids.

Roof Octopus by Lucy Brannan; illustrated by Rogerio Coelho

The illustrations in this book are absolutely gorgeous! Nora and her family are astonished to discover a giant octopus on the roof of her apartment building. Luckily, the octopus turns out to be very friendly and helpful.

Octopus’ Garden by Ringo Starr; illustrated by Ben Cort

Colorful, illustrated picture book adaptation of the classic Beatles song by Ringo Starr. I gave out our egg shakers and other simple rhythm instruments before I read/sang it, and we did it as our instrument play-along at the end.

Songs:

Slippery Fish

I usually put out a variety of animal puppets for my family storytime, so for this song, I encouraged the kids to find the different animals mentioned in the lyrics (fish, octopus, shark, whale) and hold them up. They had a great time adding in other animals: an alligator, an angler fish, a sea monster, etc.

Slippery Fish, Slippery Fish,
Swimming in the water.
Slippery Fish, Slippery Fish,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

She was eaten by an octopus, octopus,
Swimming in the water.
Octopus, Octopus,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

He was eaten by a great white shark,
Great white shark,
Swimming in the water,
Great white shark, Great white shark.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

She was eaten by a humongous whale,
Humongous whale,
Swimming in the water,
Humongous whale,
Humongous whale,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
BURP!! Pardon me!

Down in the Deep Blue Sea

I found this song from this list of 31 Ocean Songs for Preschoolers on preschooleducation.com. It’s to the tune of Shoo Fly. The kids suggested different things that they might see in the ocean.

Down in the deep blue sea,
Down in the deep blue sea,
Down in the deep blue sea,
What will we see?

We’ll see a swimming fish,
We’ll see a swimming fish,
We’ll see a swimming fish,
That is what we’ll see.

We’ll see an octopus…
We’ll see a great big whale…

Wishy Washy Washer Woman

We sang this one with the play scarves after reading Octopants. I use the version in this video from Imagine More Story Adventures:

Way down in the valley where nobody goes,
There’s a wishy washy washer woman washing her clothes.
She goes “Oooh! Ahhh! Oooh! Ahhh! Oooh! Ahhh!”
And that’s the way she washes her clothes!

Repeat with drying her clothes (blowing on the scarves), folding her clothes, and wearing her clothes.

Stay & Play: Paper Octopus

I found this simple octopus craft on SimplyFullofDelight.com. Before storytime, I printed the template on white paper. For the Stay & Play, I put out the printed templates, kids scissors, dot markers, and regular markers. The kids had fun decorating their octopus, and then cutting along the black lines to make the arms. I had a stapler on hand to staple the octopus together into a cylinder once they were done decorating.

Do you have any favorite books or songs about octopus? Please share them in the comments below.