Cup Stack and Sort

Cups are a very easy activity for children to play with.  They are very versatile and can be used for many different activities.  In this post, I'm going to show you what my kiddos and I did with these cups that I found at the dollar store.

What you will need is very simple: CUPS.  I found these multicolored hard plastic "tumblers" at my local dollar store probably two years back.  If you can't find these specific cups, multicolored thinner plastic cups that you find in the napkin aisle at a local grocery store will work as well.

In this activity, we learned:

• Precision and how to place the cups inside one another and side by side
• Colors
• Sorting
• Stacking
• Counting
• How to use eye-hand coordination
• Cause & effect
• New language - we talked about how high we could build the towers, how to put cups in a line

Here are some of the things that we did with the cups:

First, we placed cups one inside the other.  We talked about how the cups fit together and made a big tower.  This also took some strength as the cups became stuck at times, but my kiddos' persistence won that battle.

Next, we stacked them and made even bigger towers.  Here we counted how many were on the bottom, second row, top, etc.  We then had fun knocking them down!

Then, we placed them in "piles" according to their colors.  Actually, my son did this on his own and I helped him by reinforcing what he had done and kept encouraging him to make those piles by placing the cups according to their color.  

Finally, we practiced putting cups into a line.  Although they weren't placed by colors, we still learned about coordination and also the beginning and the end of the line.

We had a lot of fun with this activity.  My kiddos sat for almost 20 minutes with the cups.  I can only say that doesn't happen that often with toddlers!  

Boxes, boxes, & more boxes

A few of the different shaped boxes that we have received

This post is going to be short and simple.  Tis the season for extra boxes hanging around the house from the holidays.  I have kept every size of box from small to large that we received as gifts or through purchases.  I basically keep them until they are no longer stable enough to take a pounding from my kiddos.  Boxes can open the door of imagination for kids, and also extend on so many developmental milestones.

Smaller boxes: (such as cereal & food boxes)

The different variations of these types of boxes are very simple.  Your child could line them up according to size and learn about seriation, stack them inside one of another and learn about basic math concepts such as volume and sequencing, or treat them like stacking blocks and learn about cause and effect and develop some of their large and fine motor skills.

Medium Boxes: (such as the boxes on the bottom right hand corner in picture)

These boxes are good for kiddos to sit in mostly or sit on top.  If your kiddos are light enough, they could also stand on them and practice climbing up.  I sometimes stuff the boxes with extra paper that was inside the box when shipped or even extra plastic baggies that you receive from grocery stores.

My son climbing...

My daughter sitting on the box and using the other box as a drum

Larger boxes: (Christmas tree box, kitchen set box, longer skinnier boxes)

These types of boxes are just good ole' fashion fun boxes.  These boxes are good for climbing in and out of, playing "peek-a-boo" from inside the box with the flaps, and pretending they are a fort.

Inside the box

Hanging out inside the box

Peek-a-boo

The longer skinnier boxes we received when we ordered curtain rods online.  I like to use the boxes as a balance beam for the kiddos mostly.

  

We also integrated the boxes as a tool for them to practice jumping off of and over.  Today, though, my son decided to use it as a race car track for his cars.  Such a cute little imagination! :-)

Boxes can be used for so much and honestly, kids enjoy these so much more than the toy itself!