It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes parachutes so attractive for little ones, but they certainly prove to be a very useful tool for teaching English and for incorporating physical activities into lessons. Perhaps it’s their size, colourful fabric, or just the pure novelty of being able to represent so many things with just a little bit of imagination. You can tell stories, sing songs and play out the actions, use it for role play, use it to encourage group work and cooperation, problem solving and to coordinate movement.

Although I must admit that I am still quite new to the parachute game, I now have several groups of young learners with whom it has fast become an essential part of many lessons because of the response it gets in terms of participation, and because of the energy that can be burnt while playing games with it in English. And this energy burning potential is not to be underestimated: children love moving. In fact, they can’t help moving a lot of the time, and not channelling all that energy in lessons can lead to them finding concentration difficult and losing interest. For young children, the learning process is very physical, and learning language is no exception. Therefore, tying movement in with language lessons and using kinaesthetic learning in teaching English as a second language makes a lot of sense. Movement helps students to grasp and internalise more abstract concepts or even whole chunks of language, and doing it in a playful way ensures full engagement all round.

Parachute games not only provide a great opportunity to incorporate kinaesthetic learning into lessons, but they also encourage cooperation and group work as additional outcomes as children rely on each other to successfully tell a story or sing a rhyme and represent the actions and characters in it.

There are so many different games you can play, and for those of you who also teach English to very young children, if you haven’t already tried a parachute, I recommend you do so. Here are some of our favourites for you to try:

 

1. Teddy bear flying in the air.

Chant and walk round in a circle holding the parachute with a teddy bear in the middle. Make teddy fly when you chant “flying in the air”.

“Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear.

One step, two step, flying in the air!”

 

2. Where are the children?

I learnt this one a few weeks ago thanks to my little ones from La Caracola. Ask the children to hide under the parachute and sing the first two lines. When you sing line three, lift the parachute up quickly revealing the children. This chant works best with the help of another adult or two to help you make the parachute fly up quickly in line three.

“Where are the children? Where are the children?

Where are they? Where are they?

Here they are! Here they are!

We’ve seen them. We’ve seen them.”

 

3. Ten in a bed

This game also works best with the help of some other adults. Ask all the children to lie down on top of the parachute and sing the following song whilst gently shaking the parachute from the edges. When you sing “roll over, roll over” the children should roll. Choose one to “fall out” of the bed and shout “ouch”. Continue with the next verse, repeating the actions till the last child is left in the bed.

There were ten in a bed and the little one said

«Roll over, roll over»

So they all rolled over and one fell out, bumped his/her head and gave a shout

“ouch!”

 There were nine in a bed and the little one said

«Roll over, roll over»

So they all rolled over and one fell out, bumped his/her head and gave a shout

“ouch!”

 There were eight in a bed…

 There was one in a bed and the little one said

“Good night”

These are just a few examples of many different games. For those of you who teach young learners, I hope you enjoy trying them out. Feel free to share your ideas too!