Cereal Box Doctor's Kit

Pretend play is a healthy and important part of your child’s development. Activities like this felt board are great for quiet play, while these mitten puppets are fun for interacting with others.

A doctor’s kit actually covers both! Your child can play independently with a doll or teddy bear, or with a friend or parent as their patient. You can make everything in your kit by hand, or pick up the doctor’s tools at a dollar store.

Note to parents: The thermometer in this craft is not meant to go into a child’s mouth, but rather for pretending to take a doll or teddy’s temperature. If you prefer, you can get a toy thermometer from the store instead.

To make this kit you will need:

Doctor’s bag:

• Recycled cereal box
• Duct tape: red, white, black, blue
• Tape
• First aid cross pattern
• Adhesive backed Velcro

Medical arm band:

• Felt: blue, red, white
• First aid cross pattern

Stethoscope:

• 2 pipe cleaners
• Plastic lid
• Black duct tape

Thermometer:

• Craft stick
• White paint
• Red marker

Tools:

• Self-healing cutting mat
• Craft knife (for adult use only!)
• Non-stick scissors
• Hot glue gun (again, this is just for grown-ups)
• Parchment paper

Tape the empty cereal box closed. Tape all the sides (it makes it easier to cut a clean line).

Lay the cereal box on its side and use a craft knife to cut a slit down the center of one long side and both short sides.

Turn the box over and squeeze the remaining side to create a long crease in the center.

Open the box like a book.

Completely cover the outside of the cereal box with blue duct tape. Overlap the edges inside the box. At this time, you can also line the inside of the box with white duct tape. Set aside.

Print off the red cross pattern. Measure and cut an 8-inch long piece of white duct tape onto your cutting mat. Layer two more strips, slightly overlapping each other to create a sheet.

Lift one corner and transfer the duct tape sheet onto a piece of parchment paper. Holding the red cross pattern over the parchment, cut out a circle from the white sheet.

Peel the parchment paper off the back of the circle and press the circle to the front of the cereal box. Repeat for another circle for the other side.

Cut two red strips of tape to create a cross for the center of the white circle. Repeat for the other side.

To create the doctor bag handle, measure and cut two 16-inch long pieces of black duct tape. Fold the tape into thirds lengthwise to create the handles.

Use blue tape to attach the handles to the inside of the cereal box doctor bag.

To make the Velcro fastener on the top of the doctor bag, cut and overlap two 3-inch long pieces of blue tape and attach them to the top of the bag in between the handle.

Turn the box over and fold the tape down onto itself, sticky side to sticky side.

Cut a piece of Velcro to fit onto the blue tab you just made. Peel off the backing on one side and stick it to the tab.

Remove the backing from the other piece and press it onto the box. Now carefully separate the two pieces of Velcro and secure them further with additional blue tape.

To made the arm band cut a wide strip of blue felt (size will vary per child). Cut a circle from white felt and two small strips from red felt. Use a hot glue gun to put it all together. Size it for your child’s arm, then trim and glue.

To make the stethoscope, connect the two pipe cleaners together (adjust length according to the size of your child) and twist.

Bend the two longer ends so that they will curve and hang OVER child’s ears. NOTE: pipe cleaners can be sharp at the ends, so bend the very tip inward or you can run a small piece of duct tape around it.

For the chest piece, cut a thin strip of black duct tape, long enough to go completely around the plastic lid with room to spare. Stick it inside the lid, then up and around to the top of the lid. Connect the excess tape together.

Measure and cut a 16-inch long piece of black tape and fold it into thirds. Attach the end of that strip to the piece on top of the plastic lid using additional black tape.

Trim the twisted end of the pipe cleaner to about one-inch. Fold the open end of the long black strip of tape around the center of the pipe cleaner and use black tape to wrap it.

For the thermometer, you can paint a craft stick white and use a red marker to add the scale lines.

If you would like to make your own doctor’s mask, you can find instructions on My Poppet here.

Project created by Amanda Formaro for Kix Cereal. Amanda is a well-known craft expert and author of the  books “Rubber Band Mania” and “Duct Tape Mania”, the first two in a series of craft books for kids. She has been writing and crafting on the Internet for over fifteen years. Find out more on her blog, Crafts by Amanda, where she shares tutorials with step-by-step photos for adults and kids alike.