How to Play and Build with Paper Cups

Cup Play for Infants to Creepers

• 1

  Build a triangular wall from 10 9-oz. cups. Stack the cups with the rim side down while you use a variety of colors. Count the cups and name the colors as you build the wall.

• 2

  Place a cup up to the child's ear so that she can "hear the ocean." Put a cup on her foot and on her hand. Talk to her about the color and texture of the cup.

• 3

  Place a cup on each of your hands as if each cup were a puppet. Vary your voice as each puppet talks to the child.

Cup Play for Toddlers to 3-Year-Olds

• 4

  Build a wall with the cups as high as the child is tall. Start with a 16-cup base. Slightly curve the base to add stability. Add to the height of the wall by placing another cup at the base and building up.

• 5

  Throw a soft ball or a bean bag at a triangular wall with a six-cup base. Knocking off the top cup is the objective of the game, but hitting the wall anywhere is just as much fun when it causes the structure to implode.

• 6

  Build a fort with the cups. Lay out a square base of 20 cups on each side and build up from there. Other favorite toys and building pieces will join the scene.

• 7

  Set up cups in a bowling-pin formation. Roll a light ball, 8 to 12 inches in diameter, for play bowling.

Cup Play for 4-Year-Olds and Older

• 8

  Add 3-oz. cups to the collection. Through imagination these cups become a myriad of things. Additionally, small cups provide scale and perspective when used with larger cups.

• 9

  Draw on the cups with water-base markers. Demonstrate some ideas for the younger child, but the sooner she creates on her own, the better. Draw faces on the smaller cups to represent characters. Sketch doors, bricks and watchtowers on the larger cups.

• 10

  Create models of current, ancient and imaginative structures. Glue smaller cups rim-to-rim and base-to-base to create columns. Cut doors and windows in large cups. Create aqueducts and slides by cutting cups lengthwise.