Stacking Cups

Here's a really great, no prep, fun activity to work on hand-eye coordination and to introduce concepts of stability. I think I had as much fun as Monkey did with this one. 

This is a big hit with my Kinders and is available for them to work with for most of the year in the building centre. 

The cups were given to me but I'm told they are fairly priced for a very large bag at Costco. On a smaller scale I think the dollar store would be a good place to look, too. 

Supplies: cups

Monkey had no idea what I was up to when I put the stacks of cups out in the middle of the floor. As soon as I started playing with them he jumped right in. 

We ended up building a really big pyramid, taller than him, and when he was reaching up to put the last cup on the top, it toppled over! I wasn't fast enough to get a picture. But it was actually awesome - all the cups hitting the hardwood made a really cool noise. 

It can be frustrating for a kid to work on something and have it fail, especially so close to the end like Monkey was. But it gave us a chance to talk about trying again and making it different. 

This time I helped him make the bottom stronger and more stable and we were able to finish the whole thing.  

Since it didn't fall on us Monkey got to knock it over himself - possibly the best part of this whole activity! 

Peanut even got in on the action after his nap. 

Mar