Dog Man Day

What is Dog Man Day?

Dog Man fans of all ages are invited to join the supa epic event with activities and games. We'll play Dog Man bingo, a personality test, assess your sniffers, and more.

Dog Man is Go! That don't make no sense! But we like it!

I first came across this idea from a post from Ontarian Librarian. She was able to get a Comic Creator booklet and some other cool items to make her event a hit. I took a few of her ideas and made them my own but she is the reason I made this event.

I learned about Dog Man Day after Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea came out. Scholastic made an event kit with lots of activities. I read through them and picked the ones I knew I could do. With the power of these two sources, I was able to put together a plan for my own event.

What I did to prepare

I would say that reading at least one Dog Man book is a requirement for running this program. I read up to Brawl of the Wild and I can see why the series is so popular. 

Staffing was simple. There was myself and two others. One was there for the first hour and the other was shadowing the whole event. For the activities I picked out, I would recommend two people for the majority of the event. 

I ordered two plushies for prizes at the event. One was Bark Knight and the other was Li'l Petey. They are in the background in a few of the photos below. The kids loved these so much.

I planned activities that were going to be set up around the room as well as two group activities. I'll list them below with more links.

Activities:

• Dog food
• K-9 Sniff Test
• Make a Dog Man headband
• Puzzle

Paper Activities:

• Word searches
• Dog Man face cutout
• Coloring sheets
• Draw a comic

Set Up

The first table was the nutritious snack of dog food and a few books for checkout! I bought coco puffs and put them in some dog bowls we already had. I told the kids we didn't have any spoons because they needed to eat the food like Dog Man would eat it. One child immediately got on all fours and literally ate like a dog! Other kids used their tongues or hands to eat. I was very tickled by the idea of them eating out of dog bowls and they loved it too. You might be worried about have a huge mess to clean up afterwards as was I. However, I did a few patrols and picked up loose pieces and only found one that had been stepped on. It was surprisingly clean for the whole event. 

The next table is the K-9 Sniff Test. I put smelly things in colorful cups then put tin foil secured by a rubber band on top and poked some holes in it. I picked things that I could easily get and would be a bit difficult for kids to figure out. I collected their guesses and gave one of our plushies to the winner. This is the list of smelly things I used: lavender oil, orange oil, peppermint oil, pickle juice, soap/bubbles, cinnamon and coffee. We already had a few essential oils on hand and they worked very well. 

The next table had the supplies to make a Dog Man headband. This station was a huge hit. Every kid ending up making a headband and they were so cute. I did precut some yellow badges to help out the smaller kids but this was very easy to put together. 

I found this puzzle on Amazon and thought it was perfect for my event. The kids actually put it together twice. 

The last table was various paper activities and supplies for them. I picked out a word search, coloring sheets, Dog Man face cutout, and how to draw Dog Man.

 I also decided to write down the schedule on the white board in the back of the room. This worked out well for me to stay on task and it helped the adults to know what was happening and when. I would recommend doing something like this if you plan to organize your own event. 

Takeaway

This was a great event. There were a few moments that felt slow but the personality test and bingo got everyone excited. The majority of guests left after I announced the winner of the K-9 Sniff Test. The few that stayed finished putting together the puzzle and took extra coloring sheets home. I'll put on a similar event when the next Dog Man book comes out.