The cups
The cups is a sliding puzzle for the interactive whiteboard or a tablet. Each team has a grid of cups with one empty square, and a small card shows where each coloured cup must end up. Only a cup next to the gap can move, so pupils have to think about the order of their moves.
What children practise
- Spatial awareness: locating a position on a grid by its row and column.
- Reading a small-scale plan (the card) and transferring it to the full grid.
- Planning: thinking several moves ahead, since each cup leaves a gap where it was.
- Logical reasoning with several conditions at once when there are two or three coloured cups.
- Focus and speed, because the other team is solving the same card at the same time.
Levels and settings
Easy
3 x 3 grid and a single coloured cup. First to 3 cards wins.
Medium
3 x 3 grid and two coloured cups. First to 5 cards wins.
Hard
4 x 4 grid (3 x 3 in early years) and three coloured cups, first to 5 cards.
Grid by hand
In the settings you can choose a 2 x 2, 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 grid.
How to play it in class
- Open The cups and choose the year and difficulty: the grid, the coloured cups and the cards to win change with them.
- Name each team, or switch to On my own.
- Drag a cup that touches the gap into it, or tap the cup and then the yellow gap. Diagonal moves are not allowed.
- When the coloured cups match the card, that team wins the point and a new card appears.
Ways to play
In teams, at the same time
The screen splits in two and each team plays on its own half at the same time.
For one player
One child plays on the whole screen at their own pace: on the whiteboard, a computer or a tablet.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work for early years?
Yes. There is nothing to read: the card is a picture of the grid with coloured squares. In early years the grid is always 3 x 3.
Why won't a cup move?
Only a cup touching the gap above, below, left or right can slide into it. The game warns you when a cup is not next to the gap.
Do both teams get the same challenge?
Yes. Both get the same board and the same card, and it never starts solved or one move away from solved.
Is it free?
You can play 5 free games without signing up. After that, a one-off payment of €9.99 unlocks all 78 games for ever, on all your devices. There is no subscription.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It opens in the browser of the interactive whiteboard, panel, computer, tablet or iPad. Once loaded, it also works offline.
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