EIGHT

OBSERVING EIGHT WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Observing eight includes exploring geometric expressions of eight, i.e., octagons, octagrams; 
polyhedrons such as an octagonal pyramid and an octagonal prism.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

1. Have a table with natural and other characteristic objects for children to look at and gently touch. Make a ceremony of the placement of any new object or its picture to help create interest (e.g., octopus, spider).
2. “What do you know about eight?” (e.g., A stop sign has eight sides.)
3. Play “I Spy with My Little Eye,” finding octagons and octagrams throughout the room.
4. Challenge children to make octagons and octagrams with their bodies.
5. Have eight children sit in chairs placed at the vertices of an octagon shape and help them hold a length of yarn to delineate the shape. Invite other children to lie down on the floor under the octagon and look up at it.
   

LIFE SKILLS

• Sort a collection of octagons according to size or color.
• Thread eight beads (brown) onto a pipe cleaner or length of string and fashion into jewelry.
• Stitch around edges of octagonal cards.
• Cut along an octagonal path.
• Blend the juices of eight different vegetables.
  

SENSORIAL EXPLORATION

• Hang a mobile with octagons from the ceiling.
• Invite finger-tracing of various octagon and octagram shapes.
• Place tape to create an octagon on floor; invite children to various exercises (e.g., walking, sitting). Consider average length of children’s legs so that eight can sit here and reform the shape with their legs; walk a figure eight as a variation.
• Draw octagons in a tray of sand or shaving cream.
• “Draw” octagons with your finger in the palm of child’s hand or on his back.
• Feel sandpaper octagon and sandpaper numeral eight; make crayon rubbings of the same.
• Hold octagonal pyramids and octagonal prisms of various sizes, one at a time, in two hands. (Patterns are available for making various polyhedrons from paper or card stock.)
• Explore bubble-making with various open-form polyhedrons: an octagonal pyramid and an octagonal prism.
• Explore patterning and tessellating properties of octagons; octagons tessellate with smaller squares.
• Push or pull an eight-pound weight in a box or wagon.
  

MATH

• Explore a basket containing eight of various items (e.g., eight beads, eight pencils, eight apples).
• Name items that the child can find and bring to you on a tray (“Please bring me eight…”).
• Display currency units of choice (e.g., eight dollars, eight euros, eight yen, eight pesos).
• Count various objects in room by eight. (Counting and skip counting songs are available.)
• Display and work with units of measure (e.g., eight ounces, eight pounds, eight inches, eight feet, eight meters, eight minutes, eight hours).
  

LANGUAGE

• Read aloud picture books that harmonize with the number eight theme (e.g., Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork Alphabet by Ann Whitford Paul; The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt; Octopuses by Leighton R. Taylor).
• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child write about the objects (teacher may write child’s words); invite child to “read” his story to his friends.
• Trace within octagonal stencils and around octagonal forms (pre-writing skill).
• Trace printed, broken-line octagons off or on writing lines (pre-writing skill); extend into connect-the-eight-dots activities.
• Pin-punch paper octagons (pre-writing skill).
• Provide materials for children to make little books about eight. Include pictures (e.g., a cake with eight candles, a fish tank with eight fish).
• Explore sign language for eight.
• Add relevant words to Word Wall (e.g., eight, eighth, octagon); Greek and Latin prefixes (e.g., oct—as in octopus); include related pictures of natural and man-made constructs (e.g., The Periodic Table of the Elements shows eight main groups or types of elements).
• Add to three-part card activities (e.g., octagon).
• Explore phrases (e.g., “a figure-eight knot,” “skate a figure eight”).
  

CULTURE

• Spotlight the words for eight as you learn to count together, one to ten, in other languages.
• Look for expressions of eight on a variety of flags (e.g., Macedonian, British).
• Share expressions of eight elsewhere in various cultures.

History and Timelines

• Add to the linear display of calendar months; guide understanding of eight months.
• Add to the linear display of photographs of a child; add one from his or her eighth birthday—continuing concept of a lifetime.
• Refer to a linear timeline of the ages and find the early civilizations of Egypt, the Americas, and Islam; explore work of the ancient craftsmen who used geometry extensively, both structurally and symbolically; focus on eight and the geometric expressions of eight.
  

Art and Music

• Invite child to the nature table and engage child in conversation about the objects on display; have child draw/map the objects to create a still life.
• Print octagonal shapes using various items.
• Paste octagonal shapes.
• Stencil octagonal shapes.
• Explore what can be created with octagonal shapes.
• Cut or pin-punch octagonal shapes.
• Explore patterning and tessellating properties of octagons; octagons tessellate with smaller squares.
• Provide coloring sheets with octagonal patterns.
• Marble-roll paint onto paper in octagonal pan or box.
• Look for octagons within selected pieces of art.
• Sing and dance (e.g., add eighth verse to “The Ants Go Marching,” “Spin Spider Spin,” “Octopus’s Garden”); include songs about the planets.
• Introduce a performance by eight instrumentalists or singers as an octet.
  

Science

• Look at The Periodic Table of Elements; eight is the atomic number of oxygen.
• Read more about The Periodic Table of Elements and Dmitri Mendeleev (e.g., The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker); the number eight has a definitive presence with regard to the table.
  

Astronomy

• Study the eight planets in our solar system.
• Consider the eight phases of the moon.
  

Botany/Zoology/Human Body

• Count the eight legs on arachnids (e.g., spiders, ticks, scorpions).
• Count the eight arms or tentacles on an octopus.
  

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

1. Have children find an expression of eight outside (e.g., rocks, flowers, spiders).
2. Invite eight children to sit on the patio and roll a ball to each other; talk about the shape expressed, i.e., an octagon.
3. Play Crazy-8s card game.

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• Classroom and home photos

• Books
• Educational materials 
• Items and activities that can enhance the number theme

A spider has 8 legs.

We have eight planets in our solar system.

A stop sign has 8 sides.

"The first spiders lived about 300 million years ago, even before dinosaurs."

Eight is the atomic number of oxygen.

Square and rectangular prisms have 8 vertices.

A square pyramid has 8 edges.