I
couldn’t sleep at all last night.
Just a thinking about cups…
Did you
think I was going to stop with educational activities with plastic cups? No way! Check out these ideas!
Building
Cups – Put out cups and paper plates for the children as a construction
project. Don’t tell them what to
do or give them any directions and you’ll be surprised at what they come up
with! Talk about 21st
Century skills! Collaboration,
communication, problem solving, and creativity at its finest!
Help Me! Give each child a red and green cup to
keep in their desk. When they are
doing independent work have them place the cups on their desk with the green on
top. Green means they are good to
GO! If they need help they put the
red cup on top to indicate, “Please STOP and help me.”
Classroom
Management – You’ll need a red, green, and yellow cup for this
activity. Stack the red, yellow,
and green cups in that order and place them in the middle of a table where
students sit. If the group gets
loud, remove the green cup and the yellow will be a warning to calm down. If the noise continues remove the
yellow cup and they must stop all talking.
Note! I didn’t think of this. There are several variations of it on
the internet.
Dippers
and Fillers – This is a popular management system that many schools
use. When children are unkind or
say something hurtful they are “dippers.”
When they are kind they are “fillers.” Punch holes in the sides of a cup and tie on a string or
pipe cleaner so children can hang them on their chairs or a bulletin
board. The teacher or friends can
put a token in their cup to thank them for being a “filler.”
Storage
– Plastic cups can be used for organizing art materials, pencils, and other
supplies.
*How about
a cup for “Lost and Found Crayons” or “Lost and Found Pencils”?
*Store
brain tickets or other coupons in cups.
Lucky
Sticks – Let each child decorate a craft stick with her name. Place the sticks in a cup labeled
“lucky sticks.” When you have a
special job to be done pull a stick from the cup. That’s the “lucky” winner. Put their stick in your desk after they’ve had a turn and
when all the sticks are in your desk put them back in the cup and start all
over.
Touch
and Tell – Insert a cup in a sock.
Put an unusual item down in the cup. Children reach in the sock and try to identify the object by
touch.
*Make
several of these and number each one.
Have children draw a picture or write a sentence about each object.
Hairy
Creatures – Let children draw silly faces on small bathroom cups. Fill the cups with soil and sprinkle
grass seed on the top. Water, set
in the sun, and before long you’ll have a hairy creature!
