Book Love: Over and Under the Snow

One of my favorite winter activities in snowshoeing, because I love the beauty and quiet of the mountains covered in snow. Over and Under the Snow by Katie Messner captures the wonder of life in a snowy forest, and was a great addition to our exploration of animals in the winter time.

Extension Activities: I set up a small world invitation with small forest animals and various winter-themed loose parts, including wood blocks and pine tree needles. Several children spent the majority of their time creating homes for the animals and letting their imaginations play.

At another time, we used the animals with snowy white playdough. Some children created homes and caves, while others explored making animal footprints.

We also used the concept of "over and under" to play some math games, first with loose parts from our Math Bags and then later using counting bears and "caves." This is a great game for practicing several different math skills, and you can play it with any sort of small object, and then a cup or bowl or something to hide them.

How to play the Over and Under game:
1. Count out a certain number of objects. (It's very important to determine how many objects you are starting with.) I set out some counting cards for the students to use if they chose.

2. Hide some of the objects under a cup or bowl.

3. Count how many are over the snow (or on top of the cave, etc.) and then figure out how many are hiding underneath. Some students chose to use the counting cards to help them visualize which ones were hiding, while others used their fingers or mental math strategies.

4. Check to see if your answer was right!

As students play this game, they are building counting skills and number sense, using one-to-one correspondence, composing and decomposing numbers, and trying out problem solving strategies.