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Three Great Ideas for Parachute Games!

A parachute is not only a skydiver’s best friend, but also a great piece of equipment for developmental learning. Playing with a parachute teaches children teamwork and cooperation skills in a fun environment. This makes for a wide variety of games and learning for the entire class!

Benefits of parachute play

Parachute play has many benefits for children and for the teacher. For children, it helps develop perceptual, social, and basic motor skills. Parachutes help create better awareness because they require children to form a circle and look at each other. As opposed to ball games where the attention is on the ball, this creates a safer environment and better cooperation with the group.

Parachute games often consist of everyone working together to achieve a goal, so there are no losers. This focus on playing not winning encourages children to participate and makes for greater enjoyment of games.

Parachute games are flexible, cost effective, and allow for teacher input too. Whether you need activities for five minutes or an hour, the ease of setup helps teachers create games for small or large class sizes. Unlike other sports and games, the teacher does not needs to be the authority. This allows for more interaction and opens up friendlier learning relationships.

Types of parachutes

Parachutes come in a range of different sizes and features. Our Swirl and Rainbow Parachutes are designed for large classroom activities. The Swirl Parachutes have grip rope sewn into the edge for limitless positioning opportunities. This is ideal for games where players move around the edge of the parachute as the rope is easier to grip while moving. The Rainbow Parachutes come with sturdy stitched handles and give younger hands help for playing lifting games.

Similar to the Rainbow range, the Target Parachute has sturdy handles for better grip. The Target Parachute features numerals, dots, words and coloured zones. This parachute can be used for shape and colour identification games, or as a throwing target!

Our smaller parachutes are great for partner or small group activities. The Team Partner Chute consists of six detachable chutes with handles that can connect using the Velcro sides. Try the Partner parachutes in pairs or a small group to play coordination activities!

Activity Outline

These activities are suited for primary education classes of any size. Games can be modified to be low, moderate or high activity based on how demanding the game is. Planning a variety of activities helps set out a lesson to suit any sports day game or class.

Parachute games can be played indoors or outdoors but require a reasonable amount of space. Ideally the best place to play these games are outside on the grass. Most activities only need the parachute, but additions like light balls or bean bags add variety to activities. Watch our video for three parachute game ideas and try some progressions for a challenge!


Try Popcorn, Mushroom and Merry-Go-Round in your next class and add in progressions for an extra challenge!