Stacking Cups as a Team

By Fred Rogers Productions

Oct 29, 2025

20 min activity

Here’s a fun activity to bring multigenerational family members together. Children, parents, and grandparents can all practice their teamwork skills. Just like Donkey Hodie and her Grampy, families can celebrate how they are a hee-hawesome team!

Materials

Cups (4 or more- paper or plastic)
Rubber bands (1)
Pipe cleaners (4) or yarn (4 strips, 10 inches long)

Directions

Place the cups upside down, side by side on a table or flat surface. You should have 5 inches or more of space between each cup.

Using a pipe cleaner or piece of yarn, create a loop, and place it around the rubber band. Twist the end of the pipe cleaner or tie a knot at the end of the yarn. Repeat this step with the 3 remaining pipe cleaners or pieces of yarn.

Begin working as a team. Hold the end of two pipe cleaners or pieces of yarn and at the same time, pull to expand the rubber band.

Together, lift the rubber band and move it to the first cup, and slip the band around the top of the cup. Gently move your hands closer to the cup which will decrease the size of the rubber band so that it’s snuggly wrapped around the cup.

More teamwork is needed for the next step. Working together, lift the cup so you can move it and stack it onto one of the remaining cups. Family members should communicate and share ideas about how they’ll move the rubber band together. You might want to have a countdown signal like 1, 2, 3, lift! Lift and move the cup towards another cup. Then when the first cup is in place on top of the second cup, release the rubber band so the cups are now stacked. Repeat these steps with as many cups as you’d like.

This multigenerational activity provides family members with a joyful and fun opportunity to learn how to work at the same pace and practice teamwork!

Visit the Many Ways to Show You Care collection for more resources on caregiving.

Many Ways to Show You Care is a multi-platform content initiative for children ages 2-6, their families, and caregivers. The collection explores the many ways children show they care for members of their families, while offering supportive resources for educators, families and caregivers through storytelling, hands-on activities, and short-form media.