Using Move Over Rover!, students identify the central idea or theme of stories, learn about the characteristics of predictable texts,
and practice retelling and storytelling by bringing characters to life with puppets.
Each of the lessons can be used alone or together to support family literacy programs:
Adult Education: Using Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont and a related nonfiction piece, help adult learners identify the central idea or theme of a text with two essential questions.
Parent/Caregiver Education: Introduce parents/caregivers to the concept of predictable texts and use Move Over, Rover! as inspiration to foster creative play.
Interactive Literacy Activity: Encourage collaborative storytelling and foster creativity and shared storytelling by using puppets to retell Move Over, Rover!
Early Childhood Education: Children explore the power of story strips to retell the sequence of a story and strengthen their ability to connect illustrations with the corresponding text.
Additional Activities:
Animal pose yoga is a fun and engaging activity for children to learn about animals and be physically active. Begin with poses that reflect characters within Move Over Rover! such as snake and cat-cow. They can also get creative and invent their own animal poses. Practice deep breathing and focus on body awareness, building both physical and mental strength. Animal pose yoga promotes healthy habits and encourages children to explore their imagination.
Play animal charades together! Write down the animals from Move Over Rover! on strips of paper, place those strips in a bowl or hat. 
Take turns acting out the selected animal without making any sounds or using props while the rest of the group guesses what animal they are pretending to be. This activity encourages children to use their imagination and creativity, as well as practice nonverbal communication and observation skills.
Playing a memory game can help to improve concentration and recall. Mount the provided animal cards onto a thick piece of paper and cut along the lines to create 16 cards. Shuffle the cards and lay them face down in a grid pattern. The first player flips over two cards. If the cards match, the player gets another turn. If they do not match, the player returns the cards face down to the original location and the next player takes a turn. The player with the most pairs at the end of the game wins.
Create a doghouse for stuffed animals out of a cardboard box. Turn the box opening side down and cut the doghouse entrance, then personalize it with paint or markers. Smaller boxes could be used for stuffed animals, and appliance boxes from hardware stores can become indoor playhouses, too.
With a light source, a blank wall, and your hands, create shadow puppets of the animals in Move Over, Rover! Practice the hand movements needed to create the shadow puppet. Experiment with different lighting and movement to create a story together.
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| Hand Shadow Puppets | Retelling Move Over, Rover! | Animal Yoga |