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Parachute play is a wonderful opportunity for adults and children to have fun together in a whole group activity. The games are not competitive, providing instead an opportunity for all to achieve desired results through the support of each other. A play parachute can provide a multitude of opportunities for development of the important social skills all children require for life within their community, beginning with the basics of sharing, taking turns and helping others to have fun.
As with most early years activities, children under five need plenty of adult support, but so does the leader. As a leader you are responsible for safe play and will be keeping a close eye on everyone, but you also need to be able to concentrate on keeping the games flowing. Preparing your adult helpers beforehand with regard to your needs and expectations will help greatly.
Start Gently
Progression in the early stages of parachute play is gentle. Babies
are attracted to the colour and movement of a play parachute. For crawlers,
both these stimuli encourage the need to touch. Rather than sitting young
children down on this vast sea of vibrant colour, it is perhaps best to
allow them to make their own discoveries. Giving them the opportunity to
take their own time to experience the colour and feel of the parachute
will make their first encounter a pleasurable experience and will prepare
them for moving on to discover other effects and the earliest games. Encouraging
voices and smiles will add to the pleasure of the experience.
When the children are happy to be on or close to the parachute, a gentle shake of the edges allowing a little air flow beneath the chute will create a ripple effect. The children find themselves surrounded by waves which they may try to flatten, catch or climb over. Some will prefer to join the adults at the edge and help shake the chute, pleased at the big effect they can create. Next, try holding the chute taut at waist height so that the children can play or lie or walk about underneath a multi-coloured ceiling. If all are clearly comfortable with this then you can begin to walk around in a circle creating a kaleidoscope of colour. A gentle up and down movement can be added; the breeze caused by this 'fanning' motion will be an additional stimulus to enjoy. All these activities will help to prepare the children for the games they will eventually play. But don't forget that parachute games are all inclusive. It is just as important for you to have a good time too and for the children to see that they can help you to enjoy yourself, so get down there and experience it too!
Stories with a
Chute
There are a great many ways of involving a parachute in language development
through story telling and singing/nursery rhyme activities. Some examples:
The chute becomes a pond and the children the frogs, enacting and singing the rhyme: 'Five little speckled frogs.' For the 'Bear went over the mountain', mushroom the chute (this will be explained) and pull the edges down to the ground whilst chosen children become the bears who must crawl up the mountain and across to the other side. Leaders and parents will know endless rhymes and songs which, with just a little imagination, can be adapted to involve the chute. Later on stories of greater complexity can be enacted.
Language development is a constant when playing with a parachute and particular parts of speech can be introduced and extended: prepositions - crawl under, hop around, climb through etc.; adjectives and verbs - slither slowly, wriggle quickly etc. Young children often come up with splendid ideas for games and even though they sometimes don't quite work, the language of explanation and, later, evaluation, is more than worth the effort.
The game of Popcorn is a step beyond the story telling and rhyme activities in that enactment of an everyday function takes place but the parachute is much more actively involved:
The children all kneel in a circle holding the edge of the chute. Talk
through with them the process of making popcorn (it is a good idea to have
shared the experience beforehand). Pretend the parachute is a giant frying
pan and pour in some oil and swirl it around. Throw in the popcorn kernels
(lots and lots of foam balls). Sizzling sounds are appropriate at this
point. Suddenly the corn begins to pop and with a great shaking of the
chute all the balls bounce up and down until the very last one is shot
off the chute. At this point all the children can run to collect the balls.
This is an excellent game for learning to share; ask the children to make
sure everyone has a ball to throw back on for a repeat game.
Encourage the children to sit in a large circle. Place the parachute, rolled tightly in its bag, in the middle of the circle. Ask the children what they think it might be. When all the guesses have been discussed as to their likelihood (e.g. why the suggestion of 'an elephant' might not quite fit!), pull out one tiny piece of the parachute and give it to one of the children to hold. Guessing can continue as gradually the chute is pulled out so that the whole group are holding a section of the outer rim. We find excitement increases as the size of this 'thing' that came in a tiny little bag becomes apparent and so the first thing to do is to expend some energy by standing up and giving it a good shaking.
This initial introduction to the feel and movement of the parachute can be developed into a first lesson in 'manipulation'. When the children begin to tire, the shaking can be slowed and practice in creating different effects begun, such as wafting slowly with whole arm movements to make enormous waves, using fast hand and wrist movements to create tiny, fast-moving ripples etc. From this point, progression to 'mushrooming' the chute becomes easy.
Mushroom!
All the children and the supporting adults, (who are spaced regularly
around the chute and probably kneeling) lower the chute to the floor holding
the edge and on the count of three, raise hands above heads at full stretch.
Allow the chute time to fill with air, thus creating a mushroom shape,
before gently collapsing it. It may take a few tries to get the timing
just right but the effect is always quite awe-inspiring and tremendously
exciting. The fact that small children can feel capable of manipulating
a piece of equipment of such a vast size is enormously empowering and exciting.
Having learned to 'mushroom', the world of parachute games is wide open and the possibilities limitless. A natural follow-on game to mushrooming is 'Cross-overs'. This game involves calling out a question or command such as 'Everyone holding a blue section cross over.' The chute is then mushroomed and those holding blue sections let go of the chute and run across underneath to take up a position on the opposite side before the mushroom descends. The range of crossover questions is limitless and can involve a multitude of learning opportunities beginning with the basics of colour, age, likes and dislikes, and moving on to topic reinforcement. However, don't lose sight of the fact that this type of learning is secondary to the importance of the social skills being learned and fun is the key to both.
As parents/carers will know, very young children often want to play the same game over and over. You need to be aware of the limits of both the adults and the children as enjoyment will wane for some before others. It is useful to have a selection of games in mind which require a range of energy levels so that play can be organised appropriately. The older the children become, the more physically exhausting become the sessions, so be aware and allow for rest periods and winding down games.
As the children develop, many new games can be introduced. Throughout, safety rules can be explained and understood and safe play congratulated.
Whatever you do, don't ever forget to have fun too.
Happy 'chuting!
Sally Wilkins and Penny Stragnell