Parachute Playtime

30 minutes

Intended for 15 guests, 3-5 year olds with an adult (15 children, 15 adults)

Supplies

Huge colorful parachute
CD or MP3 player
Assorted children's floor songs
Assorted classical music or whatever floats your boat

Program

For the first 5-7 minutes of the program, while quests are still arriving, do some floor songs to warm everyone up:
Ring around the Rosie
The Hokey Pokey
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
The Wheels on the Bus

Once everyone has warmed up, it is time to take the parachute out.  Build up the anticipation by chanting: "We're taking out the parachute!"  They love this.  Maybe I love it a bit more than they do... 

Once the parachute is out, have the kids and adults all gather around the parachute and play music of your choosing.  I stick with classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky...) because I don't have to worry about appropriateness and I honestly enjoy it.  It works great because of the varrying tempo, tone and volume. 

Here are a couple of different motions you can make with the parachute:
Slow big waves
Fast small waves
Fast big waves
Slow small waves
Up slowly and down slowly
Up slowly, down slowly, pull it behind your body and sit inside the parachute
Place 1 large inflatable ball in the parachute and try to keep it in / get it out
Place 4 medium inflatable balls in the parachute and try to keep them in / get them out
Place ~30 small "ball pit" balls in the parachute and try to keep them in / get them out
Place all the different sized balls into the parachute and try to keep some combination in / out
Walk around in a circle with the parachute
Adults hold up the parachute high and kids have a dance party underneath
Adults hold up the parachute high and kids switch places underneath
Adults hold up the parachute high, make waves and kids lay down underneath and watch
Kids hold up the parachue and adults dance underneath
Only green (red, yellow, blue) triangles make waves
Try "the wave", starting with librarian, moving clockwise, lift after the person to your right

Here are little clips from our Parachute Playtime program.  You can hear me screaming over everyone.  Yay for loud voices! 

Make no mistake, by the end of this program, everyone will be exhausted, especially the librarian.  But make sure to keep your energy up, because the tone and excitement of the room will depend upon the librarian. Have an energy drink or some coffee and mentally prepare, because these kids will run circles around you if you're not up to par!