Thursday, June 11, 2015

Parachute Games, 2015 Edition

I love summer reading time because I get to pull out my favorite programs!  One such program is Parachute Games.  Once you have a parachute and access to music, it is a free program that you can run year after year.

Set Up & Registration
Parachute Games is one of those programs where it is handy to have registration.  You only have so many handles on the parachute.  While you can fudge the numbers a little, you don't want 60 kids showing up to play with a 20 handle parachute.  You also don't want only 1 child showing up.  We sign up 20 kids for our program (as we have a 20 handle parachute).  Normally a day or two ahead of time I will bump in an extra 2-4 kids as you will have kids who don't show up.  To make this decision, I look at how many siblings could possibly be available to pick up some slack in case a chunk of kids don't show up. 

Our Playlist
1.  Round the Village by Wee Sing on Wee Sing and Play-This is a good slow song to get going.  You get to go around the circle, go in and out, and turn the circle again.

2.  Moving in a Circle by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael on Rockin' Red-This is a circle spinning song again.  It tends to slow the kids down as they get super excited about bouncing things.  You will get to walk, jump, and take baby steps with the parachute.

3.  Five Little Monkeys on the cd Five Little Monkeys-Since monkeys like to bounce, we pop some monkey finger puppets we have onto the parachute for the kids to bounce.  Like the monkeys in the rhyme, they tend to fall off and we have to toss them back on again.

4.  Spin Around by The Fresh Beat Band on The Fresh Beat Band Vol. 2.0-This is one of those songs that will stick in your head all day long.  It is a fun and peppy spinning song.

5.  The Popcorn Pop by Rosenshontz on Tot Rock-Now it is time for some bouncing.  I have a lot of mini beach balls from Oriental Trading that I use as "popcorn".  The hard part is getting beach balls off of the parachute when the song is done.  Today we just left them all on and it still worked great.

6.  Ring Around the Rosie by Caspar Babypants on Sing Along!-I am loving Caspar Babypants right now, but am having a hard time getting it to catch on.  This is a circle song again, but you get to fall down.  The 2-4 year olds love to fall down and think it is the silliest thing ever.

7.  Spin Again by Jim Gill on Jim Gill Sings Do Re Mi on His Toe Leg Knee-We have Jim Gill coming to perform on Saturday so I am popping his songs in everywhere I can.

8. Juggling, Juggling, Juggling Balls by The Wiggles on Hot Poppin' Popcorn-I have a bunch of mini beach balls that I got as part of a parachute set from Oriental Trading.  Beach balls are great for the parachute because they "pop", but you can also deflate them to maximize your storage space.

9.  Popcorn by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights on I'm a Rock Star-We got to pop all of our beach balls again!

10.  Popcorn by the Barenaked Ladies on Snacktime!-Nothing beats Popcorn as a finale song as it is super fast and you get to bounce everything.  If you have any balls or props left, throw them on the parachute to bounce.


After the program was over, I let the kids play with the beach balls as I wasn't in a hurry to clean up.  It was great fun!

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