Free Printable Cereal Box Template

A cereal box book report turns a book into a cereal. School handouts ask for the same things on each side: on the front, a cereal name made up from the book title, a picture and a prize that connects to the story; on the top, the title, author, number of pages, a star rating and your name.

One side lists the "ingredients": the main characters and the setting. The other side gives a summary in three to five sentences, or a few new words with their meanings. The back has a game about the book, such as a word search, a maze or a crossword. Many teachers also ask for a short commercial to present the cereal.

Pick the half size box, which fits on two pages, and turn on the book report prompts. Each panel prints a heading, a short prompt and lines to write on, in light grey so your writing and drawings stand out. The prompts are in English.

Print the cereal box book report template on card stock, write and draw on the panels while the sheet is still flat, then cut, fold and glue it. If your teacher wants a full size box, print the 12 oz size on six pages and tape them together, or cover a real cereal box with paper and copy the prompts.

There is no single standard cereal box. A 12 oz box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes is 7.78 × 2.32 × 11.28 in and an 18 oz family size box of Cheerios is about 7.77 × 3.9 × 12.8 in, by the shipping sizes on Target's listings. The templates here are drawn close to those sizes.

A full size box unfolds to about 21 × 17 in, six Letter pages taped together, which is why the half size box exists. For a party favor, the mini cereal box prints on a single page and holds a handful of cereal or candy.

Store bought cereal boxes are folding cartons with a closure at each end that is glued shut on the packing line. A box you print at home needs to open, so this printable cereal box template uses tucks: both closures sit on the back panel, as on a straight tuck end box, so the front looks the same at the top and the bottom.

The side seam is glued along the back edge, and the dust flaps fold in under each tuck. Fold the dashed lines away from the printed side, and the outside of the box is the side with your design.

Use 65 lb cover card stock (176 gsm), which most home printers can feed; 80 lb (216 gsm) is stiffer if your printer accepts it. Print at 100%, Actual size or No scaling, never Fit to page, and measure the 1 in square on the first page.

For a blank cereal box template that you design on a computer first, download the PDF instead: it has bleed and a dashed safe line, so artwork runs to the edges and text stays clear of the folds.

Designing packaging for a real cereal? Start from the 12 oz size, set the board to your printer's paperboard and download the production PDF with spot colored cut and crease lines. Add a Nutrition Facts panel made with the nutrition label generator and a UPC barcode on a side or the back.

Printers make cereal cartons with glued ends, so send them this dieline as the starting size and ask them to confirm it on their machines.