Rotating Cups

This idea can be used for both reading and math activities.  All that you will need are styrofoam cups and a sharpie marker.  On the half-inch lip of the cup, you will write numbers or letters.  You will want to write them in such a way that the student will hold the bottom of the cup in his left hand with it tipped toward his right.  If the student is holding the cup in front of his face, he should be able to rotate the cup toward himself or away from himself and see all of the letters or numbers oriented in the same direction.  If the cup was placed on the tabletop, the letters would look sideways on the lip of the cup.  In order to leave enough space between letters, I would typically write 6-8 letters per cup, but I write more when I do letters and less on vowel cups.  A second cup is placed inside with another set of numbers or letters.  The student can use his left hand to rotate the outer cup, and the right hand will rotate the second cup.  The math application is double-digit number identification.  The left hand cup will have digits 1-9 written on the lip of the cup.  The right hand cup will have digits 0-9.  You can then ask students to form specific two digit numbers with the cups.  The reading application is with nonsense word fluency or CVC words.  Each student would hold three stacked cups instead of two.  The center cup would have each vowel written on the lip - spaced about a half inch from each other.  The first and third cup in the stack would have consonants written on them.  Use letters that are commonly used in CVC words.  Avoid q and x.  Students can form and read their own words, or you could call out words for them to form.  One additional variation would be to write initial or ending blends on the lip of a cup.