I saw a little girl today wearing a Cheerios cereal necklace. Every once in a while she took a bite and I could tell she was very happy with herself. I smiled at her pride in her “jewelry”. My kids made cereal necklaces in preschool, too. It’s a very quick and easy project. You can even throw math or pattern repetition into the project too – if you use multi-colored cereal like Fruit Loops.
Take a piece of yarn that is big enough to go around the child’s head plus a few inches. Tie a large knot on one end. Wrap a little tape around the other end. The hardness of the tape allows the kids to thread cereal on the yarn without using a needle. If you want to sneak in math, have the child count each piece of cereal as they thread it on. If you are using multi-colored cereal, you can do a color pattern. Recognizing patterns is a pre-reading skill!
When the child is finished stringing on the cereal, tie the ends together. The child should be able to slide it over their head. You should of course be careful with anything around children’s necks.
Now is the fun part, the child can snack on their necklace! All they have to do is to lift the necklace to their mouth and crunch down on a piece of cereal. If you want to include more math you can count how many the child has eaten, or how many they have left. You can even sneak in a little subtraction. You had twenty, and you’ve eaten five. So you have fifteen pieces left! Or you practice colors – as in first eat the yellows, then the reds, and so on.
The cereal necklace is a fun and easy project that preschoolers love.
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