How to Write a Cereal Box Biography

Cereal Box Biographies are the perfect book reports to assign when studying biographies or autobiographies. This activity combines knowledge from the book students read about that person with their own creativity to develop a cereal title and incorporate this title to advertise both the cereal and person. Here are directions on how to write a cereal box biography!

Materials:

Biography (I prefer chapter books for upper elementary)
Regular-size empty cereal box
White printer paper
Construction paper
Bulletin board paper or plain wrapping paper
Crayons or markers
Cereal box template and rubric (optional)

Directions:

Select a person and find a biography to read about him/her.
Take notes on the person while reading.
Prep the box. When finished reading, cover the cereal box with bulletin board paper or plain wrapping paper.
Prep the sides. Cut out 4 pieces from the white paper (2 for the size of the top/bottom panels of the cereal box and 2 for the two sides of the cereal box.) or use the templates included in the resource.
Cereal Title: Combine what you know about the person along with something related to cereal. An example for Harriet Tubman might be Harriet Flakes, Railroad Oats or Conductor Grahams.
Broad statement: On the top panel of the box, write the name of the person along with one broad statement about that person.
Title and author: On the bottom panel of the box, write the title of the book and author.
Timeline: On one of the side panels, call it Nutritional Facts and write a timeline about that person’s life with bullets or dates.
Connection: On the other side panel, call it Ingredients and write about how you can relate to that person and your thoughts about their life. Would you have done anything differently?
Creative Title: On the front panel, write the title of the cereal and any words or illustrations to go along with it.
Advertisements: On the back panel, sell the person and cereal. Use your imagination to persuade others to learn more about your person and convince them to eat your cereal!
Present the book report. Dress up or bring a prop to represent the person you’ve chosen.

I guarantee it will be one of your favorite activities of the year! If you want everything prepped and ready for you with student directions, rubric, and templates, click here!