Parachute games

Purpose

Team building, learning cooperation and using up energy

You will need

A parachute (can be bought in many shops, such as Early Learning Centre, or borrowed from nurseries, Scouts, Youth Groups etc)

Enough space to stretch it out – a large hall or outdoors on grass (not ideal on hard playgrounds)

How to do it

Type "Parachute Games" into a search engine to get thousands of ideas!  The siblings will also have their favourites.

Start by stretching out the parachute with siblings and leaders spread evenly around the perimeter, standing up and holding the chute in both hands with an overhand grip (fingers on top of the chute, thumb underneath)

Basic games include:

Winds – wave the chute up and down at different speeds, gently for a light breeze, faster for a strong wind, as fast as you can for a hurricane ...

Mexican wave – put a ball on the chute and try to get it to travel around the perimeter by raising and lowering bits of the chute – requires a lot of team cooperation to achieve it

Chute football – divide into two teams. Try to get the ball to go off the chute over the opposing side to score a goal

All those who – much the same as the usual game of the same name – hold the chute fairly high, call out some characteristic (anyone wearing blue/likes chocolate ...) and all the relevant people have to run under the chute and change places

Cat and mouse – the cat goes on top of the chute, the mouse underneath. Keeping the chute low everyone else waves it around so the mouse is hidden

Mushroom – everyone lifts the chute high, then back over their heads and sits down, tucking the chute under them – you are now all sat inside the mushroom, which is a nice cosy position for telling a story or discussing what you are going to do next.