"parachute" games??????

[northender]

ds' 6th birthday party is in a few weeks time and I have access to one of these "parachute" things from work but I wouldn't have a clue what games/activities you can do with it. Any ideas? Also your opinions as to suitability for this age group

Putting a ball on the top and trying to keep it on the parachute.

Making the parachute go high in the air then sitting on the edges before it collapses to make a tent

Children lie underneath whilst adults make it go up and down over the heads (guaranteed to cause excitement!)

Putting lots of ball pool type balls on the top

There are loads more but mind has gone blank...

'Sharks' - one child goes underneath the parachute and the others sit with their legs underneath, hold the edge/handles and move it up and down at waist height to make waves. The shark crawls around underneath and grabs someone's feet. That person then swap and becomes the shark.

The running under game , sometimes known as 'the sun shines on'
basically children all hold on and an adult shouts e.g 'if you are wearing pink' run under and all those children run around and swap places. everyone else wafts the parachute up in the air.
The 'sun shines on' version is where and adult shouts 'the sun shines on everyone with brown hair' etc
also fruit salad works well like this too. each child is given a fruit .. apple ,pear banana etc and when that fruit is called they all swap places. you can use any catagories you like.
I probably know more games but it's getting late

Mushrooms - all run into the middle and crouch down and make a mushroom shape with the parachute over the top. They have to be very still and quiet while you leave them underneath and sneak off for a drink

Apples and pears - go round the children and tell them that they are an apple or a pear (you can add other fruit if there are enough of them). When they are shaking the parachute you call out "apples" and all the apples have to go underneath and change places with another apple - same goes for when you call out pears, or bananas or whatever...

Sorry, probably not making myself very clear. Have a great party.

Very suitable and fun

Practice moving with it first of all so they can get the hang of it. Let them walk round with it, make ripples, waft up and down etc

Some games you can try are whooshing it up and shouting out a category eg "everyone wearing red". Those people have to run under to the other side. "Everyone with blue eyes" "Everyone born in December" etc etc

Sharks: all sit down with feet under the chute. One person goes under and is the shark. Shark catches someone by pulling their legs gently. Person who is caught becomes the shark and the old shark comes out. Continue until everyone has had a go. For nervous children tell them if they don't want to get caught, kneel up instead of putting their legs underneath. Shark is only allowed to catch people with legs underneath (that way they still get to join in by shaking the chute to make waves etc)

Roll a ball to named person (quite tricky!)

You can do games such as hokey cokey and so on using the chute

will do more if these are useful?

Peachygirl explained far better...

oops sorry. so slow have repeated many ideas already posted!

to calm it down at the end, get them all to whoosh it up over their heads, step in and sit down underneath the chute with it wrapped behind everyone, forming a tent over their heads. Good place to tell a story or sing a quiet song - or happy birthday

'washing machine' (although don't know if 6 yo would be too heavy ...
One child sits in the middle - crossed legs, arms in air. Everyone else holds edge of parachute and walks round in circle - parachute wrapps round person in middle when gets to armpit level, stop, and everyone pulls/runs outwards - person in middle spins round.

But we mostly shove them all underneath and wave it like loons

Ballooning it up above your heads then spinning round and sitting down inside is fun too

One I made up was to get everyone to take off a shoe and put it under the chute. Child crawls under and grabs a shoe, brings it out and then the owner of the shoe goes in next to get another shoe. etc

I recommend foam balls.

You can practice getting one bal to roll round and round with good timing and flipping bean bags about, but 6yrolds might not have the paticence for this.

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a great response! Thankyou all for your ideas. I think I need to "borrow" the one from work in advance and have a practice at handling it as I can't visualise some of the things you've described.

Thanks so much

parachute games with pictures (Lots of other good stuff on this site btw)

Thanks attila that's a great page of games. Am now wondering whether the parachute I can get will be big enough so will check tomorrow.