Our Green Frogs GSRP classroom spent time “popping a balloon on a parachute”!
The children began by working together as they played with the parachute! Eventually, one child asked to put something on top of the parachute, and a balloon was added! The children worked together to keep the balloon on the parachute, popping it up and watching what happened.
In this activity, we see coordination, cooperation, and social skills with a fun activity!
- Coordination – Children coordinate their movements and timing to keep the balloon on the parachute. As the balloon floats, children improve hand – eye coordination and body awareness.
- Cooperation – Children work together to keep the balloon on the parachute, figuring out how to work together, communicate, and synchronize their movements to do so!
- Social skills – Playing with others builds in time for taking turns, respecting each others space, and sharing a wanted material (like a balloon).
- Fun and creativity – The balloon adds an element of unpredictability to the parachute game! This encourages children’s creativity as they approach how to keep the balloon on, pretending with the balloon and how they work together.
Try something similar at home! Play a game of balloon keep it up:
- Balloons
- Fly swatter or other racquet
Begin by playing a simple game of keep the balloon up!
After a while, allow your child to find a fly swatter or other material to use as a racquet for an extra challenge at keeping it up.
