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 are are fun to include 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 kids activities

How to play with cereal box letters

Cut out words with large bold letters. 

Separate letters from words in either of two ways.

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.

You may want to cover the letters with laminate paper 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.

In the classroom, you can match the letters to a banner or other display with letters of the alphabet.

Arrange letters in alphabetical order. 

Spell your name.

How to play with cereal box pictures

Use 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.

Add these cutouts to your pretend play at home or in the classroom.

Related: Kid-Size Props for Pretend Play

Play a memory game.

Cut out pairs of images to use for a memory game.

Mix and match letters in sensory play.

Mix and match letters with different textures.

Include magnetic letters, wooden letters such as Scrabble letters or Bananagrams, with the cardboard letters cut from cereal boxes.  

Spell the food name.

Place letter cutouts under the food pictures to spell the name of each food.

Say the letter, make the sound of the letters, as you place it under the food.

Keep picture cutouts and letters accessible for independent play and learning. They're perfect for quiet times, and free play times.

And we all enjoy a little recycling, right?

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