We love this cup stacking game as a fun and interactive way to practice spelling. It’s a perfect way
to practice spelling words, sight words, and even vocabulary words for other subject areas. The
concept is simple—you use small paper cups to write down different words. Then students stack and
spell. Here are a few ideas on how to use this idea in your classroom. Plus, take a look at the
video about how we put this cup stacking game together.
Write down your spelling list for the week.
Are you looking for a new way to get your students excited about the weekly spelling list? Try using
this cup stacking game to practice spelling. For this game, put students into pairs. Have one
student stack the cups, quizzing the other student with the spelling of each one. Then once they get
through a set of words, have them switch roles.
Practice sight words.
We love fun ways to practice sight words! Write down the sight words you want students to focus on
and then challenge them to stack cups while reading the words out loud.
Use it to do vocabulary review.
Studying a science unit that has particularly challenging vocabulary? This isn’t exactly the most fun
thing for students to work on, so if you put the vocabulary words on cups, it might be just the
motivation they need. This game also works really well in pairs or small groups.
Steal the idea for practicing math fluency.
If you want to get your students thinking quick when it comes to math facts, then try applying the
cup stacking game to math! It’s perfect for practicing multiplication facts. For this one, you’ll
want to have single numbers on your cups in one color. Then you’ll have answers in another
color.
Write individual letters on the cups.
You can also encourage students to put their own words together! For this version, you’ll just put a
single letter on each cup. Then students can stack and spell!
Do you have any other fun cup stacking game ideas? Come and share with other teachers on
our WeAreTeachers Chat group on Facebook.
Plus, a phonics and spelling
game using pool noodles.
