Recycle cereal boxes for hands-on literacy activities with preschoolers. Kids can practice letters of the alphabet in fun everyday play.
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Enjoy the munch. Enjoy the crunch. Enjoy the box!
Enjoy your breakfast cereal in more ways than one! When the cereal box is empty, cut out the letters and pictures. Use them in alphabet activities and pretend play with your preschooler.
Cereal box games are easy to setup, and are practically mess free. The bold fonts can be used in early literacy games and the large, colorful images inspire pretend play.
Once you’ve munched and crunched your way through the cereal, recycle the box with these fun activities.
Cereal box activities for kids
Start by cutting out words, letters, and pictures from the cereal boxes.
Cut out words.
Separate letters from words.
There are two ways to cut out letters.
1. Leave a border around each letter.
2. Be more precise and follow the lines of the letters closely.
It will be more time consuming to cut the letters out finely, but they are a nice option for some literacy games.
Cover the letters with contact paper (aff. link) to protect and strengthen them.
Sort and count the letters.
- How many cutouts of the letter ‘H’ do you have? How many of the letter ‘E’?
- Make a simple graph to sort the letters.
- Match the letters to a banner or other display with letters of the alphabet.
Add letters to a sensory bin.
Fill a plastic tub with rice or other filler and mix cardboard letters into the rice.
Kids can find letters and place them on the table in alphabetical order.
Spell your name.
Use pictures as pretend food.
- Set the table with plastic bowls. Add cereal cutouts to the bowls.
- Use ice cream cone cutouts in a summer ‘ice cream stand’ play center.
Cover pictures with contact paper to make them sturdier for everyday play.
Play a memory game.
Cut out pairs of images to use for a memory game.
Spell the food name.
Place letter cutouts under the food pictures to spell the name of each food. Make the sound of each letter, as you place it under the food.
These cereal box games are easy to set up and fun for kids to play anytime of the day. They’re perfect for quiet times, and free play times.
Keep picture cutouts and letters accessible for independent play and learning. Because we all enjoy an opportunity to recycle and reuse.
