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Room for More

What happens when animals squeeze inside a warm doghouse on a cold, rainy day? Windy, wet weather and flying fur create a feast for the senses!

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Container of Water

Steps

  • Step 1

    With students, read “Move Over, Rover!” by Karen Beaumont. Tell the story with great animation. It’s a bright, sunny day…a sudden storm blows in…animals seek shelter. In this twist on “The Mitten,” children soon will eagerly repeat the refrain as the wind and rain drive more and more animals into the dog house. This is definitely a “read it again!” book.

  • Step 2

    Ask children to describe how the words and pictures depict weather and its effects. Which senses do they notice in the story and illustrations? What sounds do they hear? What can they smell? What do they see happening? What textures can they imagine? Is there anything they can almost taste?

  • Step 3

    Challenge children to create their own weather art using techniques similar to the illustrations by Jane Dyer. Ask children: How do you think the artist made the rain? On construction paper, children experiment with Crayola® Construction Paper Crayons and Watercolors.

  • Step 4

    As needed, show children how to create crayon resist (raindrops or leaves, for example) by first drawing with heavy crayon, then covering with watercolors. Demonstrate how to make a watercolor wash (blowing rain) with broad brush strokes and a bit of paint dancing across wet paper. Several pages of the book are filled with these techniques, with the strokes crossing from top right to bottom left.

  • Step 5

    Take another look at the illustrations for ideas to complete final illustrations. Children add details, such as wind-blown leaves, driving raindrops, smelly dog fur shaking off water—whatever appeals to them.

Standards

LA: With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear.

VA: Create art that represents natural and constructed environments.

LA: Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

MATH: Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from.

SS: Describe and speculate about physical system changes, such as seasons, climate and weather, and the water cycle.

SCI: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

SCI: Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

SCI: Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.

VA: Collaboratively engage in creative art-making in response to an artistic problem.

VA: Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to art-making.

Adaptations

For additional visual explorations about what’s going on outdoors, see How Artists See the Weather: Sun, Wind, Snow, Rain by Colleen Carroll. Experiment with representing other types of weather as the seasons change.

Visit a pet store with dog bathing facilities. What happens?

Compare and contrast this story with “The Mitten,” a Ukrainian folktale available in several versions, including those illustrated by artists such as Jan Brett, Alvin Tresselt, and Jim Aylesworth.

Write original weather-related stories. Look out the window and invent plots. Illustrate the weather. Hold a weather night with children’s families. Add children’s original books to the classroom or school library.

Ask a local meteorologist to visit the classroom to talk about weather forecasting. Prepare for the event by asking children to compile a list of interview questions. As a group, write and illustrate a report to share with children’s families. Post it on the school Web site.

Start a word wall with weather vocabulary. “Move Over, Rover!” is filled with dramatic words that appeal to young children.

Talk about whether “Move Over, Rover!” could really happen. Ask children to elaborate on why or why not. Could parts of it be real? Which parts? Why?

Turn the story into a play. Work with children to build a doghouse with a giant recycled cardboard box. Let children’s imaginations take the play from there.

Explore the senses in other settings. Visit a restaurant or grocery store. What textures can they identify? Ask children to close their eyes in the school gym. What do they smell? Tour a nearby industry. What sounds do they hear? Opportunities abound!