parachute activity

Throw out small foam balls and have the students shake the chute, popping them up in the air.

Still using small foam balls or fleece balls, have students pop the popcorn through the hold in the middle of your parachute (if it is not covered)

Divide the class in half down the middle of the parachute. With foam balls on the parachute, have them try to flip the balls on to the other teams side.

Have one student sit in the middle of the parachute with legs crossed. The rest of the students walk around him or her while holding the parachute. On your signal, students pull out on the parachute and it spins the person in the middle.

Put a small ball that will fit through the center hole of the chute on the chute. Class challenges 1. See if you can get the ball to roll around the chute number of times without it falling off or falling through. 2. See if you can get the ball through the center hole.

We use if for a birthday celebration by putting the birthday child in the middle of the parachute and everyone is holding the chute with one hand and walks around until the chute gets smaller and then they pull the chute with both hands and the birthday child spins in the middle. We call out the months of the year for the birthdays and when it is your month you have to run across to the other side while the chute is lifted in the air.

Class picture Hold parachute with hands separated on chute. Kids lift up chute, take 3 steps in to middle and place the parachute behind their necks. They then carefully lower themselves to lie on their stomachs while bringing their hands together (with the chute of course) under their chins. If done properly, all you will see are little faces under the chute. Smile.

Lift up chute. Pull down together to the top of shoes. On Go, everyone should let go of the chute together. If done properly, the chute will hover off the ground like a space ship.

Number off students by five or whatever works for your size class. Students grip the parachute with their R hands and walk in a CW direction listening for their numbers to be called. Everyone with the number called will let go of the parachute and run forward around the chute until they get back to their original spots. The students holding the parachute continue to walk while the others run around. After all the numbers are called, switch to gripping the chute with the L hands and walk in a CCW direction. For a variation change the way to travel around the parachute.

Choose two players to be the sharks, who position themselves under the middle of the parachute. On signal, standing players shake the parachute gently to create waves while the sharks move under the chute trying to gently touch/tag the leg of a standing player, at that point the two players change roles and the game continues on.