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Page 01
That rock has an eye
Grace was watching the clear water when a rock blinked.
She blinked back.
“Charlotte. That rock has an eye.”
Charlotte looked up from her notebook.
“Which rock?”
Grace pointed from their dry, safe spot, well back from the water. Mom stood beside them.
“The one that just looked at me.”
Page 02
A curl at the edge
Brown. Blotchy. Bumpy.
At first, Charlotte saw only stones.
Then Grace spotted a little curl.
“Rocks don’t curl at the edges.”
Liam tucked both hands under his bottom and peered from beside Mom.
The curl stretched. Tiny pale circles showed underneath.
Grace’s whisper wiggled with excitement.
“Look, look… look again!”
Page 03
Pause & Wonder
Charlotte’s pencil hovered.
“A moving rock?”
“Something hiding,” Grace said.
She kept watching the same patch of water.
An eye. A curling edge. Pale little circles.
The clues belonged together. But how?
What do you think Grace has found? Which clue helped you?
Liam waited so quietly that even his shoes stayed still.
Pause & wonder
What do you think Grace has found? Which clue helped you?
Page 04
Eight arms, one surprise
An arm slipped over the sand.
Then another.
The brown bundle opened into an octopus.
“Eight arms!” Charlotte said.
Liam held up his fingers, then borrowed some of Grace’s.
But Grace was watching its skin.
Over the pale sand, the octopus looked paler. Its bumps flattened.
“Same animal,” she whispered. “Different look.”
Page 05
Still there
It crept beside a knobbly rock.
Brown patches spread across its skin. Little bumps rose.
The octopus’s edges grew hard to find.
“Where did it go?” Liam asked.
Grace kept her eyes on one small spot.
“It’s still there.”
She smiled.
“It didn’t become a rock. It just looks like one!”
“Camouflage,” Mom whispered.
Page 06
Find the eye
Liam looked left.
He looked right.
“Look, look… look again!” Grace whispered.
“Find the eye.”
“Oh!”
Liam’s mouth made a little moon.
Charlotte began drawing brown patches.
“Does looking like a rock help it hide?”
“Hard to spot, hard to catch,” Mom said.
Grace rested her hands in her lap.
“We can let it stay hidden.”
Page 07
A little longer
They watched without touching, splashing, or moving closer.
A breeze lifted the corners of Charlotte’s notebook.
“I nearly walked past,” she said. “You noticed.”
Grace felt a warm fizz inside.
She hadn’t made the biggest noise.
She hadn’t found the biggest thing.
She had looked a little longer.
Then she borrowed two crayons: sandy cream and rocky brown.
Page 08
Two pictures, one octopus
At home, Grace made two pictures for the Wonder Wall.
One octopus, pale and smooth.
The same octopus, brown and bumpy.
Liam counted the eight arms in each.
Charlotte added a tiny eye.
“Look, look… look again!”
Outside, sunshine moved across the garden.
Grace paused at the window.
How many other wonders were hiding in plain sight?