Grains and Cereals for Kids: Wheat, Rice, Oats and Corn

Eight grains that feed the world: wheat for bread and pasta; rice, the main food of more than half the people on Earth; corn; oats for porridge; barley; rye for dark bread; millet; and quinoa. Cereals are the seeds of grasses, and quinoa is the exception: it is the seed of a different plant, eaten like a grain.

Rice and wheat read backwards, and barley and millet run upward. Rye, only three letters, is the hardest to spot.

Grains & Cereals Vocabulary: 8 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down; 4 of the 8 read backwards. The longest words are Barley, Millet and Quinoa, with 6 letters each.

Barley: A hardy cereal grain used in soups and stews and malted to make beer.
Corn: A cereal grain first grown in Mexico; its kernels become flour, oil, syrup and popcorn.
Millet: A small, round grain, a staple food in Africa and India.
Oats: A cereal grain rolled into flakes for porridge and granola.
Quinoa: A seed from the Andes eaten like a grain; strictly, not a cereal, because the plant is not a grass.
Rice: A grain grown in flooded paddies, the main food of more than half the world's people.
Rye: A hardy cereal grain that makes dark, dense bread.
Wheat: The most widely grown grain in the world, milled into flour for bread and pasta.

How to Solve the Grains & Cereals Word Search

"Quinoa" has the only Q and runs straight down. "Wheat" has the only W and H and reads backwards. "Barley" and "millet" both run upward; millet has the only double letter, LL.

Grain Activities for Kids

Bring small jars of rice, oats, corn and quinoa and let children match each one to its word.
Ask children which grain is in their breakfast: oats in porridge, corn in cornflakes, wheat in toast.
Make a grain collage with dried grains glued on card.