‘Cups’ is a energetic indoor/outdoor activity suitable for young children of all abilities. The aim of cups is to try and beat the other team by turning over the cups to your designated side. This allows children to better understand strategy, their environment, and how to work well with your team.
Resources
- Plastic cups x 40+
- Stopwatch
Explanation
Stage one
Split group into two teams, team ‘ups’ and team ‘downs’. Ask both teams to start at opposing sides of the area. Give each team 20 plastic cups, and ask them to place the cups in the middle of the area (if you’re an ‘up’ then your cups are going to be up and vice versa).
This will be a relay and once it starts, the team that wins this round, will have placed their cups in the correct area and position (up or down), also finished sitting in a line. The ratio of team members could change, ie if each team had 30 members then you may want 30 cups or if you had 5 members in a team then you may wish to have 15 cups each.
The winners decide whether they want to be ups or downs for the next round (any more cups that the losing team did not put out then put them in the middle area).
Stage two
Each team are to flip as many cups their way as they can. This could be done as a relay or all together. If all together then remind them about space awareness and the rules. If found hovering or guarding over cups, then you are out of the game.
Broken cups are not counted and after the allocated time limit is over, all non broken cups are counted and the winners are the ones with the most cups turns their way.
Safety Tips
Do a visual scan for any trip hazards on the floor. Space awareness—make sure that everyone doesn’t bump into each other.