Cereal Box Stories

What's even more exciting than opening a box of cereal and finding a surprise inside?

Answer: Reading a cereal box and discovering a world of wonderful storytelling opportunities! While you and your kids eat breakfast, "collect" words and phrases from cereal boxes. A designated "scribe" writes down the words on a master list as family members call them out.

Challenge each player to spin a tale that uses whatever number of words you specify (say, fifteen for older kids and ten for younger children) from the master list. You can vary the game by suggesting that storytellers: use the words in the order they were written, turn the words into characters' names, or place each word at the beginning of a sentence. You can also create a "chain story" by asking each player to build on the previous storyteller's tale.

If your family members want to enhance their stories, they can pull words from other breakfast containers, such as milk cartons and bread wrappers, and add them to the master list. So did you hear about the young boy named J. Corn Flake whose backyard treehouse was fortified with vitamin D and baked fresh daily?

More on: Nutritional Resources for Families