Since the dawn of time, the best toy ever is a small box. Well, not actually THAT long, but pretty close! Boxes allow children of all different play levels to explore, experiment, and imagine. They cost zero dollars and are easily replaced when worn out. What’s not to love?

Essential features for your box:

There are lots of different cereal vessels out there. For the activities we describe to work it’s important that you find a cereal box that:

• Is a box, not a bag

• Has flaps that close

• Doesn’t have staples or other sharp edges

• It doesn’t have to be a cereal box, any small reusable box that closes will do.

How to Play and What to Say 

Not all children are communicating and playing the same way. Click here to see what communication style best describes your child, then read below for ideas specific to their stage.

Explorers

How to Play: When you play Cereal Box with your Explorer, you will encourage your child to place objects in a container, dump them out, and shake. Put child-safe items in the box. Next, shake them or bang the box so the items rattle. Last, dump the items out on the table. Repeat this many times so your child understands the routine (objects in, shake, dump out.) After you have modeled the game a few times, encourage your child to participate by adding objects, shaking, and dumping out themselves.

What to Say: Focus on sound effects related to play actions. 

Say, “shake shake shake!” when you shake the box or  “bang bang bang!” when you bang the box. You can also say, “where’d it go?” when the object is inside the box, finishing with “there it is!” when you dump it out. 

Pioneers

How to Play: When you play Cereal Box with your Pioneer, you will be helping them label objects while they place toys in a container, shake them, and dump them out. Let your child choose what to put your box in from a field of two. Put the toy(s) in the box, then shake them or bang the box so the items rattle. Last, dump the items out on the table. Repeat this many times so your child understands the routine (objects in, shake, dump out) and hears you say the words a lot of times. After you have modeled the game a few times, encourage your child to participate by adding objects, shaking, and dumping it out while talking about what they are doing.

What to Say: Talk about what’s happening as you play by saying just a few words at a time.

When your child chooses what to put in the box, give them two choices so they can repeat the name of a toy  (“Let’s shake some toys! Do you want to shake CAT or BALL?”)

Say the name of the object you are putting in the box along with the action you are doing in that moment: “Put the BALL in!” “shake the CAT !” “Dump the TRUCK out!” 

Builders

How to Play: When you play Cereal Box with your Builder, you will help them combine words to talk about where an object is hidden. Get some smaller objects and hide them in your cereal box with your child watching. Say, “where is THOMAS?” Then answer, “THOMAS is in the house!” Pull the item out and say, “here it is! Here is THOMAS!” Then have another object say, “I’m going to hide, hee hee!” Have the item hide, then pretend you don’t know where it is. Repeat with another object. Encourage your child to initiate the routine by saying, “here, your turn!” and hand them another object to hide in the house.

What to Say: Make comments and ask questions about what you are playing. The idea is to spark a conversation with your child about what is going on.

“Uh oh, the truck is hiding!”

“Where is the truck? I’m looking for the truck!”

“I think the truck is hiding in the house. Should I look in the house?”

“Look, the truck was hiding in the house! I think he fell asleep in there.”

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