Reading is a fundamental part of early education. Studies even show that reading to newborns helps their brain development and can improve vocabulary later on. Reading opens doors to learning, and will be an essential part of schooling forever. 

Chances are that sometime in your mom life you will have a child that needs a book report, and chances are that you also purchase a large amount of boxed cereal. This creates the perfect scenario for these cereal box book reports. They are a fun way for kids to share what they learned in their reading, and a practical way to reduce, reuse and recycle those old cereal boxes. 

The first few steps in the cereal box book reports would be to read the book and buy a box of cereal if you don’t already have a box laying around. If you don’t already have a stash of cereal boxes, it could be fun to let your child pick out the cereal from the store with the book report in mind for the end result. 

Title

The cover of the cereal box is usually bright, colorful, and has the name of the cereal unmistakably large on the front. The front of the box is a lot of real estate for your child to get creative. The cereal name should be the title of the book. The art work on the front should hint to the storyline just like the cover of a book would. 

Setting

One side of the cereal box usually has nutrition facts and an ingredients list. The setting of the story can be described in this column. The setting should include things like the location, the era of time. Setting can best be remembered as the time and place. If the setting is described well it is possible for someone to get the feeling of being in the book without having ever opened it. 

Main Characters

The other side of the cereal box is where your child can describe the main characters of the story. Describing the setting and main characters are the fundamentals of a good book report. Main character descriptions can include things like age, role, personality, relationship to other characters, physical appearance, etc. 

Activity

Traditionally, the back of the cereal box usually has a maze, a word search, or some kind of activity that kids love to do over and over again. I think we all had that one sibling who did the activity in pen and ruined it for everyone else. The activity should somehow be related to the book. A word search with main character names or setting details, or title and author information could be included. 

Why Book Reports are Important

Book reports are a great way to gauge how well a child understood what they read. Reading comprehension is the only way that reading is beneficial to a child. Making book reports fun and engaging for children could help them have a better relationship with reading. Cereal box book reports are sure to be a hit with your children, and will also help them learn and grow academically. If you try it out, be sure to leave a comment!