Make your first two cuts
To make the tentacles, you'll start by making two cuts in your toilet paper tube.
To make the first cut, start from the bottom edge and cut a straight line about halfway up the length of your cardboard tube.
Make the second cut on the exact opposite side in the same way. Try to keep them as close to the same length as you can.
Cut into four tentacles
The next step in making your tentacles is to make two more cuts just like the first two. These next two cuts should be halfway between your first two cuts, one on each side. Now, your octopus should have four, fat tentacles.
Finish cutting the tentacles
To finish cutting your tentacles, cut each of your four fat tentacle pieces in half the long way, starting at the bottom edge and cutting to the same height as the first four.
Now your octopus has eight legs!
Curl the tentacles
Curl each of the tentacles around your paint brush. This will make them curl up and look more like real octopus tentacles!
Repeat for all eight tentacles
Curl all eight tentacles so they look like this picture.
Paint the octopus
Protect your work surface by laying down newspaper, an old paper bag, or using a recled plastic dish to paint in.
Grab your favorite paint color and paint the octopus's body and the top of its tentacles.
Paint the bottom of the tentacles
To paint the bottom of your tentacles, flip the octopus upside down.
Give your octopus suckers
Octopus tentacles are covered in suckers, which it uses for grabbing, moving, and sensing the environment. We'll paint our suckers with a Q-Tip!
Once your octopus tentacle bottoms are dry, dip a q-tip in a different color paint. Dab it on your tentacles to make the suckers.
Paint suckers on all the tentacles
Use the q-tip to paint suckers on every tentacle. Let it dry.
Make the face
Draw or paint on eyes, or glue on googly eyes like we did!
Use a marker or paint to draw a mouth.
Will you make a silly octopus or a serious one? You could also decorate your octopus with stripes, spots, or other fun patterns, just like a real octopus has when they're trying to blend in to their surroundings or mimic another sea creature.
