- Lay the parachute out on the ground
- Each color team finds the panels of the parachute that matches their color teams: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green
- Roll the parachute under their fingers and grip firmly. No need to use the handles. This will spread the kids out and give you a simple way to move groups of kids by saying, “Those of you holding a (chose a color) panel, go under the parachute and find a different panel”.
Ocean Waves: Shake the chute
- Grip: Roll the chute under your fingers for a firm grip.
- Big Waves: Students make big waves by shaking the chute.
- Add balls and try to bounce them off
Color Panel Run: (Color Panel style)
- Grip: Roll the chute under your fingers for a firm grip.
- Cue: Shoe tops, Lift up as high as you can, pull back…
- Leader calls out one of the four colors and the people holding that panel run underneath to the other side and take a different panel of the same color.
- Keep calling out colors until everyone completes a turn.
Dome (Igloo)
- Grip: Roll the chute under your fingers for a firm grip.
- Cue: Shoe tops, Lift up as high as you can, pull back…
- When the teacher sees that the chute is high and pulled back well:
- Teacher says, “Go under and immediately sit inside the chute, while keeping the chute stretched out tight”.
- Once inside, the teacher can let the class scoot forward and the chute will get taller.
- Optional Panel color exchange: When the teacher calls out a color, people sitting on that color can get up in the middle and exchange places with other people with the same color.
Climb the Bubble (Color panel style)
- Teacher says, “Shoe tops, 1,2,3, lift up as high as you can, pull back..
- SNAP the parachute down
- Put their knees on top on the outside of the chute (You should have a giant bubble in the middle).
- Teacher calls color teams one at a time and says to “Climb the bubble!” All of the students from that color team crawl on top of the chute until the bubble is deflated. Then they hurry back to the outside, so every color team has a turn.
- You will have to inflate the parachute again each time.
Merry Go Round Color Panel Run: (Color Panel style)
- Everyone hold the panels with your left hand on your color panel.
- Start walking (skipping?) and stretch the chute out
- Call out a color, ie. “RED”
- When their color is called, they let go of the parachute and run forward (the same way the chute is moving) and step into the next available color panel.
- Continue walking and calling out the four different color until everyone has had a chance to move.
Shark Attack Spark Style:
- Class stands holding the parachute waist high. Make ocean waves by moving the parachute up and down.
- Chose one panel color to be the sharks. They go under the chute and place their hands above their head to simulate a shark’s fin above the water.
- Shark should slide step or do the grapevine near the rim of the parachute for one lap before they begin swimming and moving back and forth and underneath the parachute. They should be cruising around and looking for ankles to bite.
- On the teacher’s signal, “Bite” The sharks grab the ankles of someone who is standing while holding the parachute. The sharks take their place and the bitten people become sharks. Once you’ve been bitten you are immune from a being attacked by a shark until everyone has had a turn.
- Continue until everyone has a turn being a shark.
Traditional Shark Attack:
- Class sits with legs underneath parachute.
- One panel color will be the lifeguards. They will stay outside of the parachute and try save
- students that get pulled under by the sharks.
- Another panel color will be the sharks under the parachute. Give each shark a frisbee to
- hold above their head under the chute.
- When someone is pulled under the parachute by the shark, they will exchange the frisbee
- to the new shark.
- The “old shark” will replace the person they pulled under on the outside of the chute.
Additional Activities:
- Picture Perfect: Start the same as igloo, but cover your head, so you can see everyone’s face while under the parachute.
- Mushroom: Start the same as igloo, but this time everyone step forward and walk forward so the the parachute rises in the air.
