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Submitted by Mary Beth D
The giant parachute was a classic kindergarten/early-elementary school activity. Whether you were an athletic kid or not, this gym class game brought everyone together to share their appreciation of really large parachutes. I remember raising the parachute and sitting on the inside as it slowly collapsed. Epic nostalgia. Maybe middle school wouldn’t have been so lame if there were more giant parachutes.
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Wow. I remember these.
I think we got to use them up to grade 8.
Don’t forget the fact that we all started partially suffocating on stale air by the time it collapsed, haha.
im only 12 and im having nostalgia. we stop using them when i got 2 year 7. we played sharks. we had people who went under it. and they chose some1 to pull underneath. and u wud become a shark. Ahhh the early 2000s.
I remember playing a game called Sharks! with it. There would be kids who would be crawling underneath the parashute while the rest of the kids were lined around the outside with their feet underneath, waving the parachute. The ’sharks’ had to grab the rest of the kids and pull them underneath to become sharks, but the neighbors could help pull the attacked to safety. It was the best!
oh my god!~ we played that in gym too! it was so much fun! we also would put like ball pit style balls in the center and wave our arms around. it was called popcorn popper.
love the popcorn popper!!
it is funny, i was just thinking about this game the other day
me, too. they stopped letting us play this in jr. high, though. >: we played with styrofoam balls (the kind that you used for science models) that were painted yellow, to look like popcorn kernels.
probably because our school was too cheap to buy rubber balls or something, but still. xD
Woah! I remember that, too!! Kids would always get their pants pulled down by the sharks….
We also played a game called cat and mouse, there would be a mouse under the parachute, and the cat on top. The cat had to try and catch the mouse while all the other kids were flapping the parachute, making the mouse’s movement almost impossible to see.
Good times.
forgot about this game completely until reading your article here. it was SOOO much fun! i got to play with these things in grade school kindergarten thru 3rd, then we had to move away to another part of the state. the new school did not have them
i am guessing the one that school had was military surplus as it was olive drab in color.
Ah, this is an Epic Win!
Only thing wrong with the parachute was that they didn’t bring it out often enough.
Do they still have this in elementary schools, or did they get banned for some silly politically correct/safety reason?
why didn’t they bring these out more!? that was like the f’n best day of gym class and you actually did get some excersize, too. this is perfect for kids who hate sports, too.
I’d be surprised if it weren’t banned by now. (Isn’t anything fun being banned these days?)
I can remember so many people just taking a header walking on top of the parachute.
Actually, I’m in a teacher education program in Minnesota, getting my license in Elementary Education. In my Physical Education class, the professor actually taught us about the parachute, how to use it, why it’s so great, etc. He strongly encouraged us to use parachutes, because you use so many different muscle groups, everyone can participate, there are so many games to play with them, etc. He was a big fan. So at least in Minnesota, it seems like it’s a green light. They may be even still in use here. I’m not sure. But all the graduates of my school’s program will be using them…:)
I loved this thing back in middle school. The color parachute and paw print on the floor look eerily familiar. Went to Northside Elementary School in Elizabeth City, NC. Subby was this where it came from?
Wow! I remember one year at a vacation bible school, it rained almost every day… so instead of the outdoor games, we got to play with the parachute instead!!
Best week of my life.
I got to play this just a couple of years ago when taking my son to a toddler gym class. It’s still fun.
I just was remembering these the other day…The two from my elementary were neon and primary…and the coaches would choose people from one certain color of the parachute to sit on top of it while the other people kept flapping it..Oh! And we used to run to the opposite side of the parachute when it was up and we had to make it before it collapsed..Good times,good times…
haha look at the one kid on the right lyin’ down and being all goofy. Too. much. parachute. fun. must. geek. out.
Wow. I am having a ton of flashback from grade school. I think we used them all the way through 8th grade. (Then we all “matured” and went to high school…)
We used the parachute so much when I was in elemntary. We’d all crawl under and see how many jokes we could tell before it collapsed. It would’ve stayed up longer had it not been for the dumb fat kid everyone hated standing up and running into the middle, letting all the air into the damn thing and collapsing it really fast. That stupid ho.
This was one of the best activities they ever had at my elementary. The school would bring this out twice, maybe three times a year during this big physical fitness day. they had tons of activities all over on the playground and you’d go along as a group to each one. Everyone always looked longingly at the parachute, wondering when they’d get their turn.
It was a great way to learn teamwork too. The better everyone held down their part of the chute, the longer the dome stayed up.
One time on a really windy day the coach lifted up his side just as it was about to completely collapsed and it re-inflated. Yeah, our group got a bonus. Twas awesome.
This was dee best! We used to play “catch the mouse” and have someone run around underneath…fun times;)
we did these maybe once or twice a year when i was in grade school. i remember in third grade, we he put a basketball in the middle and we were supposed to throw it across the gym to another class with a parachute. well, we tried to, but there was always that one kid who got WAY too excited. he flapped the chute a little too hard, so the basketball flew up about 50 feet up to the ceiling, bounced off one of the caged lights, and hit the ceiling. several ties fell out, and the gym was closed for a day or two while they were fixing it. i dont remember anyone getting in trouble, but the coach thought it was pretty frikin’ funny.
We never got to play with the parachutes enough. Some stupid kid always wet his pants, puked or something and ruined everything for the rest of us. Same with the square scooter things. Little whiney kids ran their fingers over.
I wish we could still play with these things in high school! Although I realize now that they have no purpose whatsoever… Except to maybe bust morale. Just think how much happier we would be if we played with the parachute a couple times a week.
Actually, according the the Physical Education professor in my teacher licensing program, parachutes are great for a whole bunch of muscle groups, good for a cardio workout, AND they build teamwork. He was a huge fan of using them in phy ed.
I was playing that game till the end of Highschool. XD;
im gonna miss it..
This was our favorite thing in gym class. They didn’t bring it out nearly often enough.
ZOMG! BEST GAME EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was always so exciting for everyone!!! It made me so happy to have PE day. every other game in PE saw me get hit in the face and end up with a nose bleed. :S
but the Big Parachute is the most EPIC of WINS on this website!
Yes! The freakin’ awesomeness that was the parachute. Speaking as a Gym Class HATER (despise-r really) I even got excited about the parachute. I would have LOVED to have had this in middle and especially high school. Why do little kids get the cool things when the high schoolers who NEED the fun get stuck being humiliated?
I may have taken a camp counselor job just to have an excuse to play with one of these as a teen/young adult.
Loved parachutes.
Last summer we played a game that involved putting all the rubber chickens we could find in the middle of it and then flinging them into the air as far as they would go.
LUV LUV LUUUUUUUVV THIS!!! I thought about this when the little square scooter thingys were on the FP! I remember ours had sort of a rainbow of radiating colors and every one grabbed a color and wooooosh lift it up for a bubble and the teacher would call out a color and you had to let go if your color was called and run across to the other side where the person directly across from you with the same color was running towards you as fast as they could… lots of collisions, but FUN!!! That and the popcorn popper (POP POP POPPITY POP POP!) !!! BEST GYM DAY EVER!!!
actually… looked very much like the one pictured but i remember the sections of color being larger… of course I was MUCH smaller at the time, so THAT might have something to do with it.
I remember how all the boys (and myself being the token tomboy) would do one big collective fart when the PE teacher did the mushroom….had ourselves a nice Dutch Oven! Gassed all the other girls in the process!
Having the coordination of a dingbat, I remember walking into PE thinking, what fresh hell is this?
The best part was at the end of class when three lucky kids sat in the middle with their backs to each other, locking elbows. The rest of us would grab a color, walk in the same direction around until they were all wrapped up. At the count of three, everyone ran straight out, spinning the middle 3 sick.
best.gym.EVAR!!!11!
Does this work on black top or grass as well?
I loved that game!!
My favorite gym class activity. It was amusement for the whole period.
I LOVED the days we played parachute games in gym class! The best game ever was the dodgeball one where the kids all formed a circle, pulled the chute taut and the teacher would put half a dozen assorted Red Kickballs onto it..and then we’d try to shake the chute and try not to get smacked in the head by one of the balls (Oh but that sounds dodgy don’t it).
I used these when I was a preschool teacher in the late 70’s early 80’s. They were real surplus parachutes then. The parents clamored to join in. How could you not laugh when playing with these things.
Endless amusement for kiddies. I get worn out trying to keep up. But it’s HYSTERICAL watching them shriek and laugh for 30 minutes straight.
Ah, we were one of the lucky people, we got to use it right up to leaving secondary school. We even got to use the bouncy castle on the last day.
I always won at Cat and mouse XD Weather as the cat or the mouse, but I remember it hurt my knees afterwards, on that hard Gym floor XD WIN nonetheless.
You could always tell when it was parachute week at our school because kids would have bruised knees.
Of course I loved it as a kid. That parachute was freakin’ hugemongous! Now I work at a kid place and we have a parachute, and I hate it. The kids just go crazy and won’t listen for an hour after we get it out. It’s like some kind of crazy kid drug, that stupid parachute!
I loved these so much, and I’m 13 now! In elementary school we used to play Sharks and Igloo. In Igloo some kids would go under the parachute and lie down on the edge to prevent the Polar Bears from getting in and eating them. Good times, good times.
this was my favorite game in gym
This was one of my favorite games:)
I remember I was always in the one class that DIDN’T have the parachute
ohhh I loved the parachute! I remember doing the thousand-headed-turtle, or some such… Basically, we lifted up the parachute way way high, then got underneath it with our heads sticking out. We’d have a dome, and look like some really odd turtle… So said the gym teacher. Ah well. It was fun. ^^
man, all the other schools in my city had those, but my school didn’t. they looked so fun… TT_TT
I do recall playing with one once, a loooooong time ago… I would recreate it with bedsheets(the ones that are all clingy and elastic on the sides), but instead of being inside, I’de jump on it. it was just as fun.
My middle school had one of these, I think. They were the BEST
Through some weird quirk of fate my graduating class managed to have the same gym teacher for both kindergarten and senior year. He decided to give us a big send-off by letting us play with all of the cool elementary-school gym stuff for the last few weeks of school. Giant parachutes, giant padded balls, butt scooters and elastic bands FTW!
Oh god, the Giant Parachute. I always wondered why they chose to call it a parachute; I can still imagine someone jumping over a canyon holding on to one of those things. I remember the Popcorn game, where there were a few puffy balls in the middle (the ones I remember were made out of yarn, I still can’t figure out how xD) and you just shook the parachute up and down so the balls would pop around like popcorn. I’m tellin’ ya, running underneath the parachute while it’s floating down to the ground, there’s a memory.
my middle school still did the Parachute game…ahh…my old school Epicly Failed, except for that…
I loved it! It made gym class much more fun! We would make mushroom houses, and run across to the other side whenever the teacher called our name and then there was a game called swamp of sadness where the parachute was laid on the floor and two people had to crawl underneath it and make it in the other side before the other.
This was one of my favorite gym games as a child…
I grew up in a succession of Canadian military bases, and until this post I always believed this was something only mili-brats did. We only ever had plain white parachutes, none of that crazy multi-colour business.
I remember running in a circle, then running the opposite way, having to pull with all your might to keep the middle of the chute off the ground; the “popcorn” game, trying to keep a number of different balls bouncing at the same time; pointing towards a classmate across from you and the both of you take off running to the other person’s handhold from underneath the chute; finally, the collective unfolding and re-folding at the beginning and end of gym class.
Adults need to play more games.
We used to use one of these in elementary school – but we would put someone on top in the middle and throw them up in the air. Too bad someone has to always ruin the fun by getting hurt and having their parents sue the school…
I loved the parachute! I’m glad to see others did too. I thought it was just a regional thing.
Oh my god! we still do this at my high school! it is so funny how juvinile people will find this eventually…
I miss this game so much! DX I haven’t played it since 1st grade! (Yes, very sad T_T)
I broke my finger playing this game in 4th grade.
One of my elementary schools and my middle school had this. The middle school also had a giant inflatable ball. The HS class of 2001 even took it out of the gym and ran over a teacher with it.
Aww! I remember playing this! I wish I was a little kid again
There were two days that made me love gym in elementary school- the day where you could just run around and play with jump ropes or hula hoops or those little flat scooter things, and the day they got out the parachute.
I was upset when I realized that my fifth grade school didn’t play with the parachute, and when I went off to middle school and transferred three times, I never saw it again. There was no “free day” after fourth grade. When I got to high school, it turned to hell- you ran laps, you did your “warm up exercises” (which is a euphemism for “We’re going to make you walk funny over and over because that fat kid over there can’t lift his legs”), and if you were lucky you got to play a sadistic version of dodgeball where the losing team had to do push-ups or run laps.
Where did the parachute go? Every high school kid’s day, no matter how much teenage crap they’re going through, would be a great day if they could just play with that parachute again.
Cool story bro
really, who DIDNT love this game. -sigh- i wish i could play it today but i dont have a lotta friends
Was this anyone elses favorite day in gym class in elementary school. They didnt even let us on it but it was so damn cool that no one cared
YYYAAAAYYYY this was my FAVORITE!! Ahh carefree days…
I remember one day in grade school (c. 1991) we were playing with the parachute when our gym teacher said, “Class is almost over and your teacher will be here any minute, but I bet we could hide and make her wonder where we went!” So we inflated the parachute, got really quiet, and sat on the edges underneath it, trying not to giggle too much and give ourselves away. Finally, just when the parachute was running out of air, we heard our teacher arrive and we all jumped out and yelled, “Surprise! We’re under here!”
Yes. Parachutes = EPIC WIN.
I remember Cat and Mouse!!! Definitely nostalgia! those were good times, good times.
Every Friday in grade school, we would be able to pick one activity and play it, and the parachute game always won. (Up until grade 5-6 when kids thought it was more fun to hit people with dodge balls instead.)
It would always be a fight for the middle, and if the parachute touched you before you made it to the group of giggling elementary kids in the center, you were deemed uncool. Of course, if you were the last one out, you were twice as uncool for making others wait for you.
aww i remember that parachute game
I remember playing cat and mouse with this! What fun times.
I think everyone’s favorite gym day was when we played with the parachute. I remember walking into gym in elementary and everyone’s face just lighting up when we saw the parachute. We knew it was gonna be an awesome gym period.
My 3rd best gym experience. 1st favorite I get to do till high school. It’s this game called Pits and Alleys. Tag on an obsticle course. ‘Nuff said.
This game made PE lessons worthwhile! We played it all through secondary school, especially in year 10 and 11, we played it even more in those 2 years. XD <3 Best game ever!!
AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont remember what we were supposed to do in it but i remember it
The most magical game ever. So little physical activity required. ^_^
OMG I remember those… heck… I remember that gym teacher, that’s my old elementary school and that’s my old elementary school teacher! We used to do that all the time!
loved that thing in school!!!!
awww…i forgot about this game! this was my favorite thing at gym time! i remember we played “popcorn” with it to…we put a bunch of foam balls on the top of it and shook it! aww the memories