This week we have been reading Go Dog, Go! By P.D. Eastman (Dr. Seuss). It’s an adorable book that teaches positions, prepositions, and colors. Throughout the story, a whole slew of dogs are making their way to a big tree. Once they get there, they all climb up a huge ladder to join a great big dog party. Loads of dogs with party hats, treats, playing games and having a grand ol’ time. Mixed into this plot is a dog continually asking another dog if she likes his hat, to which she always replies “No, I do not like your hat!” Then they say their good-byes and part ways. Until the end when her hat is decorated like crazy with streamers, flowers, and random things and when she asks him one final time his response is “I do. What a hat! I like it! I like that party hat!”

I thought it would be fun to mix things up and invite some friends for a “Dog Party” like in the story. We asked them each to bring a stuffed dog along. We started our playdate by gathering in a circle to read the story. Then I led them in a traffic light song with some simple sign language motions. There is a stoplight a few times in the story when the dogs are traveling around in cars, so I thought this would be a fun theme to bring in.

Twinkle, Twinkle Traffic Light

On the corner shining bright

Red means STOP

Green means GO

Yellow means go very SLOW

Twinkle, Twinkle Traffic Light

On the corner shining bright

Then we gathered at the table and decorated some party hats. I offered a bunch of random supplies like feathers, pom-poms, sequins, gems, and ribbons. I had regular white glue available to the kids and a hot glue gun plugged in away from the kids for any moms that wanted to glue something a little trickier on for their child.

While they were decorating their hats I melted and mixed together the chocolate and peanut butter for the Puppy Chow. You can find the exact recipe I used here. I doubled this recipe to feed 9 kids a good amount and some mamas too. If you have never had it before, it’s so incredibly delicious. I feel like it’s a childhood staple. A few kids helped me stir it up with the Rice Chex when they had finished their hats. Then, one by one the kids came and held open up a big zipper bag for me to scoop in some Puppy Chow and sprinkle in the powdered sugar. We zipped it back up, leaving some air in there and then they shook the bags to coat the Rice Chex.

We listened to music, snacked on our Puppy Chow, blew party blowers, and wore our freshly decorated party hats. Then the kids played with their stuffed dogs, these large blocks, and a big barn we have had for ages. They built towers and buildings for the dogs and pretended the barn was a dog house. Lots of fun imaginative, cooperative play was happening!

We ended our playdate by going outside for some Red Light, Green Light. We used the red, green, and yellow blocks to hold up as a visual cue to support the auditory cue. I feel like this really helped the young ones who had never played before catch on to the game. They took turns being the leader, holding up the blocks, and calling out the direction.

It was such an inexpensive, low-prep morning and the kids had so much fun! I love making books come alive for my kids and it’s even better to invite others along too. I’m already dreaming up our next Book Club Playdate!