Are you looking for summer activities for kids at home? This Button Octopus is a fun way to develop fine motor skills and practice some essential life skills at the same time. This play idea is all about teaching toddlers and preschoolers to do and undo buttons. Kids need hand strength, dexterity and hand-eye coordination to achieve it.

Use this fun game at home as a quiet time activity, or in the classroom as part of a summer or under the sea themed lesson plan. Either way, it’s a great addition to your early years resources.

If you want to make your Summer themed lessons a breeze, then check out the Summer Activity Pack. It’s filled with math and literacy centers, fine motor activities and arts and crafts templates. All of which are aligned with preschool learning standards. Check it out today.

Learn how to make an Octopus Fine Motor Activity as part of your Summer busy bag collection. A fantastic play idea for toddlers and preschoolers — Don’t forget to follow Taming Little Monsters on Instagram

Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.

Summer Fine Motor Activities

Are you looking for a different way to help your children develop their fine motor skills? Check out these other summer themed developmental activities for toddlers and preschoolers.

For more ideas, take a look at these 15 Summer Fine Motor Activities for Kids.

Materials Needed

Felt sheets in different colors
Buttons
Scissors
Googly eyes
Needle and thread
Pen

How to make an Octopus Busy Bag

Make the Head

1. Take a piece of felt and draw part of a circle and 8 (very short) legs.

I found it easier to trace around a small paper plate to make the head of my octopus. I didn’t worry about the lines being visible between the head and the legs, because I knew I was going to turn the head over and the lines would be on the back of my octopus.

2. Sew a button to the ends of each of the legs.

Please note that small parts, like buttons pose a choking hazard to small children. Make sure to keep a close eye on this activity to ensure your children are safe at all times.

3. Glue a pair of googly eyes to the middle of the octopus’ head.

This step is optional. You can also just paint the face on or have no face at all. This step is a great way for you to get creative and do what you like.

How To Make the Legs

4. Cut the different colors of felt into strips.

You can choose what size you would like these to be, depending on what size buttons you have and what you think looks best. I made mine about 2 inches long and half an inch wide. However, you can choose to just make 8 strips (1 for each leg) instead of multiple pieces for each leg.

5. Sew a button to one end of each of the felt strips.

One shortcut that you may be interested in, is to glue the buttons onto the felt instead of sewing them. I did experiment with this, and it did work… sometimes.

I found that if you accidentally place too much glue on the button, the entire surface of the button will be lost.

If you want to use glue, then I recommend that you only use a tiny amount in the very center. You want the sides of the buttons to be able to pull away from the felt so that they actually work like buttons are meant to. After all, this activity is designed to give children the chance to practice doing up buttons.

6. Cut a slit in the other end of each felt strip.

Make this slit large enough for the buttons to fit through.

7. Enjoy Playing

This is the cutest summer activity for kids that I’ve tried this year. I love how my kids can practice counting, color recognition, and build their vocabulary. All while they play.

How to Play with your Button Octopus

Make an octopus

1. Pick a leg and choose a strip of felt.

2. Push the button from the leg through the hole in the strip of felt.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until your octopus has 8 long legs.

Make a bracelet

Use the felt strips to make a bracelet or a necklace. Young children are still getting to practice buttoning while getting the added bonus of being able to wear what they create.

Color Matching

If you use a variety of colored buttons and felt, you can turn this button octopus into a color matching activity too. All you need to do is to match the color of the button to the same color of the next felt strip.

For example, your yellow felt strip has a blue button attached to it. Find a piece of blue felt to join with your blue button. When you join these two pieces, the blue button will be surrounded by blue felt.

What You’re Learning

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hands and fingers. Strong fine motor skills are important in young children because it gets them ready for writing when they go to school, and helps them to engage in independent tasks. Doing and undoing buttons helps children to develop:

Pincer grip
Hand-eye coordination
Muscle strength
Dexterity

STEM

Science

Learn all about this fascinating creature while you play. This is a great time to talk to your kids about octopus’. You can include questions like:

Where do they live?
What do they eat?
How do they move?
How do they have babies?
What are the different kinds of octopus’?

Technology

Buttons are a super simple technology we use for fastening two ends of fabric together. We use them mainly for clothing, but also for things like handbags and arts and crafts.