Octopus Maths

I made these octopus game boards years ago, and decided to get them out to work on numbers up to 8. I set out a bowl of Cheerios and a game board for each of the boys.

First, they placed the Cheerios on each leg. The numbers 1-8 are written on the end of each tentacle. Once we were finished, I got out the dice. R used a standard die, whilst M used a die with the numbers 1-3 on it. They had to roll the die and then place that number of Cheerios on the octopus. Once they were done, they ate their left-over Cheerios as a snack.

There are many other alternatives to using Cheerio's including:

• M&M's
• Flat glass pebbles
• Play dough balls
• Tiny marshmallows
• Small pom-poms
• Small magnets