Our "Brake for Breakfast" event hosted by Kelloggs and Epicurious Kids is coming on Saturday, September 24th, and planning it has got cereal on my mind. Cereal can be healthy, nutritious, and quick meal, and it makes a great "on the go" snack too. It's one of the few foods I can think of that is almost guaranteed to please even the most particular eaters. Beyond the bowl though, I've realized that cereal can also be a great learning tool. Here are a few fun and easy educational activities to do with cereal:
1. Counting: This works great with slightly larger cereals such mini-wheats. Set out a muffin tin, and tape a piece of paper with a number ranging from 1-12 below each compartment in the tin. Challenge your preschooler to count and place one piece of cereal into the tin labeled one, two pieces of cereal into the compartment labelled two, and so forth.
2. Sorting: Pour out a small bowl of a multi-coloured cereal like Fruit Loops (or mix a few different types of larger cereal in a bowl). Have your little one sort the cereal into separate colours.
3. Scooping and Pouring: Fill a cake pan or casserole dish with a small cereal such as Rice Krispies. Give your little one a variety of spoons, measuring cups, and bowls, and allow her to practice scooping, sorting, dumping, and pouring. It's great way to develop fine motor skills, and a fun sensory experience too.
4. Lacing beads and Patterning: Beading is another great activity for building fine motor skills, but it can be tricky to find larger beads that do not pose a choking hazard. "O" shaped cereals such as Fruit Loops are perfect for kids to use to practice breading, and they can eat their creations at the end too. Older children can even create simple patterns with cereal.
5. Letter Recognition: To help little ones learn to identify and write the letters of the alphabet, draw a large letter onto a piece of construction paper. Have kids arrange large pieces of cereal along the lines of the letter (use glue if you would like to create a more permanent work of art). It's much more fun than repeatedly tracing letters in a workbook.
6. Addition and Subtraction: Larger pieces of cereal make a great manipulative for learning adding and subtracting too. The best part of seeing how many pieces of cereal are left when you "take away two", is getting to eat the pieces that you've taken away.
7. Puzzles: The fronts of cereal boxes often feature images that are familiar to kids. When you have finished a box of your family's favourite type, cut the front of the box into a few different pieces, and see if your kids can put them back together.
8. Site and Spelling Word Practice: Make use of the time the cereal box out on the table to help kids recognize and learn spelling and site words. Simply write the words out on a sheet of paper, and tape the paper to the front of the box. You can challenge your little ones to read the words, turn the box around and have an older child spell words off the list, or just even just leave the words visible for kids to absorb while they eat.
Have fun learning to eat, and eating to learn, and be sure to share your ideas too!
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