disposable cup creations! how to play the GRAND way!
Friday, October 30,, 2026
Welcome back to Our Grand Lives!
Since Halloween is only one day away,
we thought it was the perfect time to take a Little trip down memory lane
before turning to this post’s topic!
As retired teachers, today of all days, we are thinking of our former colleagues
who are still in the classroom!
Oh goodness! We feel you!
Years ago, we’d have Halloween parades and parties at school,
and during the years we taught half day kindergarten,
there would be two parties to host each day!
The day was always exhausting!
Then we’d clean up, head home and do it all over again with our own families!
These days, we happily view Halloween through our Grand lens
and the sweetest Halloween treat of all?
Our Littles - our grandkids - in their costumes, of course!
For those of you who are also Grands,
don’t you agree?
Our first Halloween as Grands!
Halloween 2022
Laurie’s Little D as Dorothy & Laura’s Little L as a cow!
The following year - Halloween 2023,
Laurie’s Little P was only a week old!
Then, two years ago! We each had two Littles to ooh and ahh over!
Halloween 2024
And…. last year! Halloween 2025!
Goodness, our Littles are growing up way too fast!!
What will 2026 bring???
We can’t wait to see our Littles all dressed up once again…
Laurie in person and Laura virtually (thank you, FaceTime)!
Thanks so much for indulging us as we took this time to reminisce
and capture such sweet memories!
And now onto today’s topic!
With the holiday season just around the corner,
many of us will soon be gathering with family and looking for ways
to keep our Littles happily entertained at the same time!
Whether you're hosting a holiday get-together
or simply spending a cozy afternoon together,
you don't need fancy toys or expensive supplies to create some Grand fun!
Sometimes, the simplest things can spark the biggest smiles!
Today we're sharing another post in our series,
How to Play the GRAND Way!
We love celebrating the simple joy of turning everyday items
into extra-fun experiences!
So far, we’ve shared three posts on this topic!
and
Today, we’ve got our fourth installment for you!
This month's edition features a common item found in many households!
Disposable Cups!
PLEASE NOTE that when our post refers to disposable cups, there are many options to consider that you’ve probably got extras in your cupboards - plastic, paper or solo are all options!
Also, one SMALL SAFETY NOTE... Be sure to choose sturdy cups without sharp or broken edges, supervise play, and avoid cups that could pose a choking risk if damaged or chewed. And if you're using cups for games, consider keeping the play cups separate from cups used for drinking.
Yep, those ordinary cups tucked away in your kitchen cupboard
can be transformed into all sorts of playful possibilities.
So, gather a few cups, invite your Littles to join the fun,
and get ready to stack, build, create, and giggle together!
Here are some of our favorite ways to play with disposable cups!
Disposable Cups & Your Littlest Littles!
Young toddlers will love this Stacking Activity and it’s one you can quickly and easily set up for them to do independently in their high chair!
Laura’s Little L was seventeen-months-old when we first gave her a stack of big and little plastic cups to play with. She was intrigued! Simply stacking a set of cups kept Little L entertained for quite some time and our conversations were priceless!
So fun to watch our Littles think and problem solve as they stack away!
A Few Other GRAND Ideas!
Toddler Littles will also enjoy using cups to play Hide-and-Seek and to go Bowling!
For Hide-and-Seek, set out 3 or more cups in a row
and have one object that you hide under one of the cups.
Your Little can lift up one cup at a time to try and find the missing object
OR,
beforehand, your Little can watch you move the cups around and around with the missing object hiding under one of them as you do so.
Where is it?
In the photo below, our Little was searching for the missing goldfish cracker!
She found it!
To go bowling, we stacked 8 or more cups into a pyramid…
Do you see the polar bear we put at the top of our pyramid?
The only other supply we needed was a small ball.
After stacking the cups (which was fun in itself),
Little L stepped back, and rolled the ball at the pyramid!
STRIKE!
Adapting These Games for Older Littles is Easy, Too!
Of course, you can vary all of these games and play them with older Littles!
✽ Older Littles will love being timed as they stack a pile of cups!
✽ Older Littles can play Hide-and-Seek with more cups and/or more objects to hide! They’d also be challenged by playing concentration with a set of cups (use 12 cups and hide six matching sets of things, one under each cup)
✽ When it comes to bowling, make the pyramid taller and wider!
Stack ‘Em Up!
Of course, one of the best ways to use disposable cups is to give Littles of any age a big stack of them and just let them explore and create! This is one of the funnest and easiest yet most challenging activities for kids and the materials can be adapted to fit multiple ages!
Challenge your Littles to build the tallest structure they can
or as many different types of structures as they can!
Give your Littles some index cards (or strips of paper), too,
and see what happens and how high they can go!!
Or, how about making an inverted creation?
It’s harder than it looks!
More Disposable Cup Builders!
This activity is an extension of the last one and allows older Littles to stretch their imaginations and creativity! Go through your cupboards and grab a variety of disposable cups and any other “building” materials you can find!
Laura had cups and popsicle sticks available during a rainy summer afternoon at the lake and that was all our Littles needed!
Even some of the grown ups got into it!
Experimenting with Disposable Cups!
Who knew that disposable cups could come in so handy!
They are a great resource for science experiments and projects!
A Walking Water Rainbow!
This is an activity Laura and her Littles have done multiple times, repeating it over and over! The experiment shows water “walking” from cup to cup, mixing colors into a gradual rainbow!
MATERIALS NEEDED
• 6 clear cups
• paper towels (cut into 2” wide strips)
• food coloring (red, yellow, green, blue)
• water
DIRECTIONS
Line up cups. Place 6 clear cups in a straight line. Add water to each cup, filling each halfway full.
Add food coloring to the cups in the following order::
Cup 1 - Put 2-3 drops of red food coloring in and stir.
Cup 2 - Put 2 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of yellow food coloring in..
Mix together. If needed, add 1 more drop of red and/or yellow to achieve an orange color.
Cup 3 - Put 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring in and stir.
Cup 4 - Put 2-3 drops of green food coloring in and stir. Another option would be to put 2 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 drops of blue food coloring in. Mix together. Then, if needed, add 1 more drop of yellow and/or blue to achieve a green color.
Cup 5 - Put 2-3 drops of blue food coloring in and stir.
Cup 6 - Put 2 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of blue food coloring in.. Mix together. If needed, add 1 more drop of red and/or blue to achieve a purple color.
Insert paper towels: Fold paper towels lengthwise into long strips. Place one end of a strip into one cup and then the other end of the strip into the adjacent cup (i.e. place one end of the strip into the cup of red water and the other end into the cup of orange water).
Repeat until all cups are connected in a length of rainbow strips!
Watch and observe!
Watch as the colored water climbs up the paper towels. The colors will travel and meet, forming a walking rainbow! (We set the timer for 20 minutes and checked it multiple times! In fact, we had to keep it set up for a few days each time!
We loved watching our rainbow travel!
A Pom Pom Launcher!
Are you ready to have a blast with your Littles? A Pom Pom Launcher combines fun and discovery for Littles of all ages and by using soft launching objects, safety is insured!
MATERIALS NEEDED
• disposable cups
• Exacto knife or scissors
• 12” balloons
• duct tape or clear packing tape
• pom poms OR cotton balls
• craft materials to decorate launcher (craft/scrapbook/wrapping paper, stickers, etc)
DIRECTIONS
Before you begin, a grown up needs to cut the bottom out of the cup with an Exacto knife (or scissors).
This next step is completely optional! For Littles who like to do crafts, they can decorate the cups with fun paper, stickers, foam shapes, markers and more!
NOTE: Some disposable cups have a thin plastic covering so washable markers/crayons don't always work... we suggest testing ahead of time.). Provide tape, glue and scissors, as needed.
Choose a balloon and knot the end (about ¼ inch from the end). Then, using scissors, cut off the very top of the balloon (at the opposite end from the tied end).
Stretch the balloon over the bottom end of the cup. Center the knot over the opening. Wrap duct tape/packing tape around the cup, sealing the balloon as shown below.
Did you notice that, once we’d applied the duct tape, we added a few more decorations (stickers) to the launcher we made. Your Little could certainly do the same.
Now, you and your Little(s) are ready for some fun!
Point away from others!
Load the pom pom launcher with one or more pom poms,
aim upward or outward, pull the knotted end of the balloon and… Let's go!
There are SOOOOOO many ways to play with disposable cups!
We’ve barely scratched the surface,
so, don’t be surprised if some day we post a Part 2 with more thoughts
filled with learning activities and games!
In the meantime,
to find more of our ideas in the days ahead!
We’re wondering…
Do you have some creative ways to use disposable cups for play?
We’d love to hear your ideas!
Please share your thoughts in the comments section at the end of this post!
We’ll be back early next week with another post to share!
Please come back and join us!
And, don’t forget, you can always sign up to subscribe to our blog!
That way, you won’t ever miss out!!
As we head into the holiday season, we hope you’ll tuck a few of these ideas away in your own GRAND bag of tricks! Because play doesn’t need a special reason, a special place, or a house full of special supplies.
Sometimes, all it takes is something as simple as a disposable cup or two, a willing Little, and a Grand who is ready to play!
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I think we did every single one of these-- even as my boys were in middle school we'd have fun with building with cups. My oldest once made a 4 sided fort out of them... that he had to knock over to get out of. I remember writing sight words on them and my youngest who was learning to read would stack as he read or he'd build something and only have to read the cups he managed to bowl over. But cups were such a wonderful and fairly cheap school supply.
Who knew you could do so many fun activities with disposable cups?