Sep 26 11
at 5:33 PM
Cup Stacking
Last week, The Littlest Apple found a stack of disposable plastic cups leftover from my small group meeting and started lining them up and stacking them. Â I never even thought to give him plastic cups to play with, but as soon as I saw his interest in the cups, I immediately pounced on the opportunity to make this a “learning” activity.
tongue out helps him focus, apparently…
Here are all the ways we played with the plastic cups:
- We stacked them top to bottom as high as we could
- We lined them up
- We sorted them by color (there were red and blue cups)
- We made patterns
- We stacked them pyramid style (both big and little pyramids)
- We watched some videos online of kids speed stacking cups, and then timed ourselves to see how fast we could stack them up and take them down
- We tossed a plastic golf ball into the cups
- We smashed and crashed them and knocked them down (not my favorite part, but The Littlest Apple certainly liked this!)
The first time we played with them for about an hour and a half (and much of that was The Littlest Apple playing all by himself, something he rarely does). Â An HOUR AND A HALF!!
Plastic cups.
Who knew?!
What strange things around the house keep your kids entertained?
5 Comments
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When he gets older, you can add content to them and have him stack them according to the content. I do it with my students and the layers of the earth. There is also a rhythmic cup movement “song” that is great to do with large and small groups. It can be hilarious. It is good for hand/eye coordination. I’ve also done team building activities with them where they have to use a rubber band with three strings tied to it to move the cups and stack them. Each kid has a string, so they have to work together. They have a blast.
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Tupperware containers…my 1 yr. old likes to pull them one by one from the cabinet and stack them, my 3 yr. old likes to line them up by size to make a tupperware train.
Hi Cara,
I am a new follower and I would really like to email you but your about lists your email as thepickyapple (dot) com. Can you please email me?
Thank you!
Hi Cara!
This may be off-subject… but what brand is the shirt your Little Apple is wearing? My son is currently obsessed with Hawaii and it would be perfect for him! :-)  Thanks!
Amanda
Amanda,
The shirt is Quicksilver brand. Â We purchased it at the Quicksilver store during our trip to Kauai in May. Â My husband has the same one too! Â Hope that helps!