Parachute Play

Activity Overview

Playing with a parachute is an exciting activity for the whole family to play, or for a child to play with friends. It allows the child to activate their proprioceptive and vestibular sensory systems to give their body a better understanding of where it is in space, and more importantly, how to move through space.

What You Need

• Fitted sheet (queen or king size work best)

• Light-weight balls of different sizes

• Flashlights

Steps

1. Lay the sheet on the floor and have all participants stand along the edge.

2. Show all participants how you can move your body and arms to manipulate the sheet.

3. Begin by picking up the sheet and bouncing your hands up and down.

4. Have all participants lift their hands as high as they can, then step forward, sit or crouch on the floor and pull the sheet down over everyone’s heads – you’ve created a little house for you all to stay in!

5. Once you have had a moment to explore the parachute experience, add one ball at a time to the top. See how you can move them or bounce them.

6. Add flashlights and shine them from under the sheet - how does it look? Now shine the lights through the sheet from the outside in. How does that look? How does it look when the lights are out, and you’re in your parachute house shining the lights?

Guiding Questions

• How can you use your hands and body to make the sheet move?

• What happens when you move your hands quickly? Slowly?

• What does the motion of the sheet moving remind you of?

• Can you use your body and hands to control the ball on the parachute?

• Can you hide underneath the parachute?

• Can we move the ball back and forth between participants?

• Can you get the ball to go to a specific person?

Extensions

• Can you play this in the dark?

• Can one person crawl under the sheet while everyone else is moving it?