Move Over, Rover!

Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont is one of my favorite rainy day stories to share with preschoolers and is easily adapted into a short puppet skit. My library branch doesn't own all of the animals in Beaumont's book, so I use what we have on hand and try to include varying sizes of puppets.

Then, I just stack the puppets one on the other inside Rover's dog house, having the children repeat the refrain "Move Over, Rover!" with me. I've tweaked the ending of the version I tell, since we don't own a skunk, and instead have a dinosaur join the mix, scaring the tuna salad out of every animal involved.






Props:
I used my favorite building prop, a tri-fold presentation board, to construct a simple house facade. Cardboard rectangles secured with brass fasteners made the roof, and I cut out a large hole in front.

Puppets:
Dog

You can use what you have on hand and adapt. Here's what I used today:
Cat
Mouse
Bunny
Opossum
Dinosaur

I mostly follow the format of this cumulative story, keeping it simple by saying  "Rover's in the dog house, sleeping through the storm . . . (the animal) is looking all around to find a place that's warm . . .  MOVE OVER, ROVER!"

And I end it with the dinosaur puppet, saying "Crowded in the dog house, snoring all around. What's that sound? ROAR! A dinosaur!" And everyone skit skats out of Rover's dog house.

I hope you enjoy this one.



Happy day,
Miss Lisa

Who's in the Old Tree?

Using a tri-fold presentation board, I made what sort of resembles an oak tree. I covered it in crumpled brown kraft paper, so it would look like bark and cut a hole in the center. I added kraft paper tree limbs and faux autumn oak leaves.

Since I was using this skit with my toddler group, I placed the tree up high on our lectern and I could easily manipulate the puppets behind the tree. The children were mesmerized, especially when the spider popped out.

I used a familiar song we sing and adapted it to this skit.

Puppets:
As many animals and insects as you want to live in your oak tree. I used:
a cardinal
a squirrel
a spider

Props:
A tree with a cut-out for the animals to peek out of.

"Who's in the Old Tree?"
Who's in the old tree,
the old tree, the old tree?
Who's in the old tree?
I don't know!
Let's find out!

This was easy and satisfyingly simple.