Octopus Day!

Tuesday 21st October 2025

How Octopus Day Sparked a School-Wide Deep Dive

On Tuesday, 7th October 2025, Cricklade Manor Prep transformed into an underwater world as we celebrated our highly anticipated Octopus Day! This annual event goes beyond costumes and crafts; it’s a whole-school exploration of science, conservation, and critical thinking, all inspired by the ocean’s most intelligent invertebrate.

More Than Meets the Eye: Science and Sustainability

The day kicked off with an energetic whole-school assembly, focusing on the incredible scientific facts of the octopus: over 300 species, nine brains, three hearts, and the amazing ability of camouflage for problem-solving and showing emotion.

The core lesson, however, was about sustainability. As an ambassador species for our Green Day initiative, the octopus helped us explore the urgent link between saving the creature and preserving its ocean habitat. It was inspiring to hear pupils demonstrate their knowledge of global warming and climate change during the Q&A session.

Huge congratulations to the winners of our class costume competition: Mya, Zara, Theodore, Rithwik, Sebastian, Thomas, Theodore A, Thea, Jordan, Sekora, Harry, Ezra, Floyd, and Miss Brown!

Tentacular Learning Across the Curriculum

Octopus Day provided the perfect opportunity for hands-on, cross-curricular workshops led by class teachers:

Prep School Deep Dive (Years 4, 5, & 6)

  • Year 6 (Geography & Art): Pupils linked the giant octopus project to global geography. Using coffee bean sacks (supplied by a local coffee shop), they discussed the origin of the beans (Ethiopia) before tackling the challenge of sewing and stuffing the sack material to create enormous, eight-legged art.
  • Year 5 (Maths & PSHE): Focusing on self-led discovery, pupils researched the location and population density of octopuses, recording their data in various formats like bar graphs and pie charts. They discovered the Pacific Ocean holds the most species. They also enjoyed performing the fun, Miss B-written song, The Octopus Family, complete with actions.
  • Year 4 (Literacy & Computing): In groups of three, eight teams used devices to research key areas (diet, habitat, reproduction, etc.) and collaborated to produce their own fascinating octopus podcasts.

Pre-Prep Adventures (Reception, Years 1, 2, & 3)

  • Year 3 (STEAM & PE): Embracing trust and collaboration, teams negotiated mazes in the Sports Hall, with a masked partner guiding them. This provided an excellent physical challenge, which was then translated into a STEAM opportunity by designing a program for a Bee-Bot, fitted with an octopus mask, to negotiate a self-constructed maze.
  • Year 2 (Art & Music): Pupils created a huge, whole-year group underwater frieze using various recycling materials. They also enthusiastically performed the Beatles’ classic, ‘Octopus’s Garden‘.
  • Year 1 (Science & Craft): After following a ‘Draw with Rob’ video to perfect their drawings, Year 1s made ‘soctopuses’ and paperchain designs. They even linked parts of the eye learned in Science when explaining the eyes on their creations!
  • Reception (Exploration & Imagination): The youngest explorers made a large collage display, discussed floating and sinking while making small boats, and drew their own octopus with a magic power (like turning into a rainbow or camouflage).

Octopus Day was a resounding success, demonstrating the power of using a single, fascinating topic to unlock curiosity and achievement across every subject. Thank you to all the staff and pupils for making it such a memorable day of tentacular fun!