I can in no way, shape, or form take full credit for this great idea. However, I modified it for my use with /s/ and /r/ in therapy and my kids LOVE it! They are known in my room as Artic. Towers!
What you need for 1 tower:
1 – Pringles Can (I got the tallest I could find which happens to be the Reduced Fat ones)
45 – 5oz (or smaller) Dixie-Type bath cups
The Can Labels and words can be downloaded HERE
How to make it:
Download and print off the can label and glue or tape it around the can (some trimming may be necessary).
Download and print off the words and either glue, tape, or write them on the cups (I used rubber cement because the cups were waxy which didn’t allow a sharpie to write on them.
Stack the cups in the can and then follow the easy play directions!
How to play:
Take the stack of cups out of the can. Have the student say each word a certain number of times, in a sentence, etc. They then start to stack the cups. After they have 3 in a pyramid, they start at the bottom until they have 6 in a pyramid, then 10, then 15, and so on until they have all 45 stacked in a pyramid! It’s harder than it looks. However, for an extra hard challenge, have them turn the cups the “right” way up (upside down from what is pictured above) and try to stack that way. I have yet to have a student stack all 45 this way and is great for the older students who master the “original” way shown above very quickly.
Thanks to Pinterest teachers for this idea I’ve seen floating around. I hope the adaptation for Artic works well for you. I also would like to adapt for grammar (present/past tense, etc), vocab, etc. How about you?
Very cool. Thanks! I was wondering what to do with all these extra dixie cups . . .
I love this! I made the /r/ and /s/ variations yesterday, and I gave them a trial run in therapy today. They were a HUGE hit!
I plan to adapt versions for /k/ and /g/, and also some of the phonological processes– maybe stopping and final consonant deletion. Thank you so much for your awesome blog!
Excellent idea! And, another reason to justify buying Pringles. For younger children you could also print out pictures containing the target word and glue them to the bottom on the cups.
Thanks! Fun idea!
Great idea! I am going to try this next year w/ boardmaker pictures-english on one side, spanish on the other..
I love this idea! We have to present a creative therapy technique, materials and all, for one of my classes, and this is the one I’m going to use! Thanks!
Now that we are going into May, I was desperately in need of something new to do in therapy. Since I work with preschool-age children, I used Boardmaker pictures and cut and pasted them onto Avery mailing labels to stick onto the cups.
These have been on my to-do list for a while, they’re so cute! When I went to print them out today though, I found that the link to the can labels and words is missing. Can you fix the link or email me the files?
Thanks so much!