Cheerios Self Portraits

This Cheerios art was one of the best activities we have done in a long while. It held the kids’ attention for over an hour and a half which was a victory in itself, but there were so many other great things about this project as well. It allowed to kids to explore their creativity and express how they see themselves.

For the background, we used pieces of cardboard that I had on hand from some packaging. If you don’t have any cardboard, the inside cardboard from a cereal box would work as well. For this project, I had bought a box of Chocolate Cheerios and a box of Multigrain Cheerios. I thought it was funny being at the grocery store and looking at the different shades of Cheerios and comparing them, trying to figure out if the Honey Nut Cheerios may have had a different hue than the ones in the box of Multigrain!

The kids each sketched a portrait of themselves on their cardboard with pencil. I set out a few bowls of different coloured Cheerios and let the kids glue away! We used regular white glue (commonly called school glue). This activity is excellent fine motor practise as well.

I talked to them a bit about using different colours for shading, but I let them be creative and choose their own colouring. Some of the kids chose to colour the background or add little details like earrings to their self portraits.

Another great thing about this project was that it gave us the opportunity to talk again about all the little things that make us unique and even talk more about different skin tones.

The finished artwork was so cool, especially because the portraits were each so unique. When The Husband came home, he was easily able to identify which portrait belonged to which child!

From left to right in the picture above: Snuggle Puppy, Miss Optimism, Einstein, Dancing Queen, and Granola Girl. The kids loved their creations and were proud to show them off! We will definitely be doing more Cheerios art in the future!

If you are looking for other easy activities for children, you may be interested in following my Kids Activities Board on Pinterest.