Parachutes are a classic childhood staple and for good reasons: they’re lightweight, colorful, and have endless uses!
We love all of our parachutes but — shhh, don’t tell the others! — we are especially excited about our 12 Foot Parachute with Mesh Basket Center. Whether you take it to a picnic or a party, our rainbow-hued parachute is the perfect tool for building perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills.
Not only are the colors eye-catching, but each panel on the high quality rip-stop polyester parachute is silkscreened with the numbers 1-6 to encourage mathematical thinking through play. Who said math was boring?
At 12 feet in diameter, this parachute is perfect for launching balls or bean bags into the air and then catching them in the 19″ x 8″ deep mesh basket center.
Parachutes are a fantastic way to facilitate group play in an easy-to-understand and interactive manner. This particular parachute features six double-stitched, reinforced, webbed handles and plenty of room to grab onto the spaces in between so everyone can jump in and join in the fun!
Here are a few of our favorite games to play with our mesh basket parachute:
Ball Roll. Try to roll large bouncy balls into the mesh basket in the middle of the parachute. Once it lands in the center, have everyone lower the parachute and then lift it back up at the same time to launch the balls into the air. For an opposite effect, encourage the children to try to keep the balls outside of the mesh basket center.
Flying Saucer. Place a ball in the mesh basket center. Have everyone take one step forward upon lifting the parachute chute in the air and then instruct everyone to let go at the same time, and watch as it slowly floats back down.
Number Roll. Throw a ball on to the parachute and then call out different numbers (or colors) and have everyone try to roll the ball to the corresponding number.
Once the games wrap up, simply store the parachute in it’s carry bag until the next time your child’s dreams take flight!