Week 6 – Marine Invertebrates
Cephalopods (Octopi, Squid) & Other Marine Mollusks

Day 1:
Mollusks are soft bodied animals.  They are invertebrates which means that they don't have a backbone.  The largest three categories of mollusks are:

Octopi – Lesson Plan 4 (a lesson I found online)
Enchanted Learning Octopus Printouts

Cephalopods are a class of fast-swimming mollusk. Some have a hard external shell, but most do not. Cephalopods are marine predators; these carnivores eat fish, worms, crustaceans, and other mollusks. Some cephalopods include the octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus, and ammonite (and other extinct animals). There are about 650 living cephalopods.
Cephalopod means "head-foot." The foot of the cephalopod is a cluster of tentacles that connects directly to the head. The brain, the eyes, and the other sensory organs are well-developed. Cephalopods breathe using gills. They swim by jet-propulsion; they rapidly expel water from the mantle cavity through a specialized, tube-like organ called the hyponome. Many can also eject a cloud of ink to confuse enemies.
 
Day 2:
Rapid Transit
Blow up a balloon, then without tying off the end let it go. What happens?
Why? Octopuses use a similar technique to escape from predators or move quickly after their prey. By drawing water into its body an octopus can inflate itself with water like you inflated the balloon with air. By contracting strong muscles in its body the octopus then forces the water out through a small funnel located under the head. The large amount of water escaping from a small opening causes the octopus to jet backwards like the balloon did when the air quickly escaped through its narrow neck.

Make an Octopus
What you will need:
• a balloon
• 8 strips of paper or cloth about 1 cm wide length and width can vary
  depending on the size of your balloon
• tape
• a felt pen
Blow the balloon up until it is the size you want the body of your octopus to be and tie it off. Tape the 8 strips of cloth or paper around the balloon near the neck and draw eyes on your octopus. On a large piece of paper draw an underwater scene and put your octopus in front of it.   
 
Day 3:

Discuss:
1. What do you think determines if a female octopus lives long
enough to make sure her eggs are protected and cared for until they hatch?
2. What adaptations does an octopus have that help it survive?
3. Can you think of advantages of having no bones?
4. Name three ways an octopus could escape from a predator.
5. What do you think is the reason on octopus squirts ink when it is afraid or agitated?

Camouflage
One of most amazing features of cephalopods is their ability to change body colour and texture to camouflage themselves against different backgrounds.

1. Draw a picture of an octopus under water with some other animals that might live in the same area. Color the picture so the octopus is camouflaged.
2. In this activity, students will design and make a paper animal that can camouflage itself against a variety of backgrounds.

First, have the class create two or more habitats by colouring or cutting and pasting patterns onto sheets of paper. One background might be all brown, another could have green and white stripes, and another could have black circles on a white background. The backgrounds should be about 2 by 1.5 metres To begin the activity, ask the students whether they know of any animals that blend in well with their surroundings and how these animals accomplish that feat. Then have your students to create their own animals - using construction paper, tape, glue, and any other available materials - that will blend in against as many of the backgrounds as possible. The paper animals must be at least 10 centimetres wide. Lay the first background on a large table or floor, then select one or more students to act as predators. The predators should turn their backs while students place their animals against the first background. Once the animals are set, have the predators turn around quickly and point to the first two or three animals they see. Remove those animals from the pack. Next, repeat the process with the other backgrounds. When the easiest to spot animals have been removed, lead a class discussion about the characteristics that prevented the other animals from being spotted. Was it their shape? Was it their patterns? What kept them hidden and why? You can also ask your students to imagine what sorts of shapes and patterns might keep human beings camouflaged in a variety of environments.

Day 4:
Camouflage – Lesson Plan 5 (Another plan I found online)
Black & White Activity – SeaWorld Study   

Day 5:
Discuss the squid and cuttlefish.
What is the Difference Between an Octopus and a Squid?
An octopus has eight arms. A squid has ten: eight of the same length and two extra long ones used in grabbing prey. These extra two arms are called tentacles. The arms of both squids and octopuses have suckers on them used to latch onto prey.
Make graphic organizer, comparing and contrasting.
Color squid and cuttlefish printouts.
Vocabulary:
    arms
    beak and mouth
    clubs
    eye   
    feeding tentacles
    fins
    head
    mantle
    siphon

Day 6:
Label squid on printouts

Octopi For Lunch:

Octopus Rice Krispy Treats
Mix the rice krispy treats as usual. Press into small ball shapes, I used a cookie dough shaper. Cut string licorice to make 8 legs, press into bottom of rice krispies balls. You can make eyes with many different things, mini m&m's, cake sprinkle decorations, etc.

Hot Dog Octopi
Use a whole hot dog for each child. Before cooking slice one end of the hotdog parallel about 1/2 way up. Do this again-so that you have 4 legs. Then cut those each in 1/2 and you end up with 8legs! Boil hotdogs and the arms curl up looking like an octopus!

Octopop!
In a Dixie cup, pour juice (orange, apple, fruit punch, etc.), put in a craft stick. Put in gummy worms hanging over the edge to look like legs. When the pop is taken out of the cup it looks like an octopus on a stick.