Three or four weeks of pure wonder
The morning your school or library gets delightfully taken over.
DoodleFace Parade fills your space with friendly characters kids make their own — then can't stop coming back to see what they got up to.
The heart of it
The come-back loop
A kid — or a whole class — makes a character their own: coloring it, reading with it, taking on a challenge. They head off, and while they're away it gets up to something. They come back — after lunch, after class, or the next day — to see what it did, and a new challenge sends them off again. It's the loop that turns a library or classroom from a place kids are sent into the place they beg to go.
Make it their own
One kid or a whole class colors it, reads with it, or takes on a challenge.
Off they go
They head to class, on with their day, or home for the night.
It gets up to something
While they're away, staff bring it to life — mischief, an adventure, a note left behind.
They race back
Just to see what it did — and a new challenge sends them off again.
↻ And a new challenge sends them off again… and again.
A core activity for libraries
In the library
The loop is the whole draw — and it's built for busy staff.
- A character lives in the children's area and changes between visits. Families can even check one out to take home and bring it back.
- Between visits, staff just bring the Doodle to life and set the next challenge. No points to track, no quizzes.
- Start with a single character and grow from there. Kids and families keep coming back to see what it did.
Lighter by design
In the classroom
Same character, a smaller lift — it fits around the day you already have.
- One school-wide challenge a week is plenty. Everyone shares in it; no one has to organize much.
- The rest of the time the Doodle is simply around — moving, making mischief, lending a hand with a lesson.
- Run a full activity when you want one. Never required.
You don't have to add one more thing.
Teachers and librarians are already stretched. The Doodle isn't a new program to keep feeding — it enhances what you're already doing, from a reading log to a kindness push to a math review. Run an activity when it helps, and let the character simply be present the rest of the time.
Why a parade is unlike anything else
Six things that set it apart
✨
It arrives like magic
A parade doesn't get handed out — it makes an entrance, as if a circus truck tipped over and the characters escaped inside overnight.
🔁
It's never the same twice
Hundreds of activities across every subject and season keep it fresh for weeks — and brand new each year with a different theme.
🏡
It goes home, and all around town
Doodles travel home with kids on adventures and out into the community — until the whole town is part of the story.
💛
It can pay for itself
A local business can sponsor the parade, and the end-of-parade adoption celebration helps fund the next one.
📣
It's made to be shared
Every day is a story worth posting. Families share, classes share, the whole town shares — it's the rare program that markets itself.
🔬
It's backed by real research
One of the most impactful — and most fun — research-based activities a school or library can run, built on some of the most studied work in education: the arts, cooperative play, and belonging.
Who it's for
Find the page made for you
Whether you lead a school, teach a class, or run a school or public library, the parade looks a little different for you. Pick your page for the specifics.
School Leaders
The month your whole school remembers.
Belonging that shows up in attendance, effort, and how kids treat each other — and a program that can pay for itself.
See the schools page →
Teachers
The most fun you'll have teaching all year.
Students rush in each morning to see what the Doodle did — and that excitement carries into everything you teach.
See the schools page →
School Librarians
Make your library the place kids run to.
The come-back loop turns your library from a place kids are sent into the place they beg to go.
See the libraries page →
Public Librarians
Give families a reason to keep coming back.
A character that changes between visits — and sometimes goes home — brings families back week after week.
See the libraries page →
Worth saying plainly
A DoodleFace Parade is one of the most impactful — and most fun — research-based activities a school, school library, or public library can run.
+11
percentile-point achievement gain from programs that build these skills — across 213 studies of 270,000+ children
10,548
students in the largest randomized trial in arts education (grades 3–8): better attendance and kindness, fewer behavior problems
Ages 2–11
decades of library research show a love of reading is built through joy and play — exactly how a parade builds it
The honest version: this isn't a program proven in a lab. It's a joyful one built on evidence-tested methods.
Durlak et al., 2011 (n=270,034) · Cipriano et al., 2023 (n=575,361) · Bowen & Kisida, 2019 (RCT, n=10,548) · Farrington et al., 2019 · Garaigordobil, 2022 · American Library Association · Lotts, 2017 · ALSC / Alberts
A note from the founder
DoodleFace Parade came about because we're all short on positivity, excitement, and connection — and right now, we feel it. Teachers, librarians, communities, kids. I was a teacher, and I wanted to build something that brings the wonder back: something that gets kids excited again — about school, about the library, about learning, about life. It's grown into a community of educators, librarians, counselors, and school leaders from all over — across the country today, and beyond it before long — who care about the same thing. The Doodles themselves are made right here in the United States, in our small town of Holley, New York (about an hour from Niagara Falls). We're not a big company — we're real people, and there's one of us behind every parade. Reach out anytime, about anything. We'd love to hear from you.
— Darren Coon, founder & former teacher