15 Best Parachute Activities for Elementary Music

Originally published January 7, 2023
Latest Update April 2, 2026

Looking for the best parachute activities for elementary music? This big list guide covers everything from songs, games, and activities to exploring form, melodic direction, rhythm, beat, and vocal exploration.

These activities provide a fun application for music elements as well as physical activity for fitness, a brain break, and a social-emotional learning (SEL) outlet.

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🪂 What size and type of parachute should I get for my music room?

When looking for the best parachute for elementary music, you have to balance the average number (and size) of students with the specific needs of your space. Try to get the largest one that will fit your space.

For Large Groups: The Sportime GripStarChute
is my top pick. It features 4-layer construction and 22 heavy-duty handles, which is essential for withstanding years of vigorous “popcorn” and “mushroom” K-5 parachute games with 25+ students.

For Small Spaces, Centers, & Creative Partner Activities: These 2-Person Partner Parachutes are a total game-changer for inclusive music activities. They allow for individualized assessment, partner exploration, and help students practice steady beat in pairs, which is much easier to manage than one giant silk in a tight classroom.

The classroom image is where the partners were singing to the stuffed animal on their parachute as they lifted and lowered the parachutes. I had a class set of these small parachutes.

🪂 How do you create a parachute routine in music?

Creating a successful movement routine doesn’t have to be complicated. The secret is to let the music’s natural characteristics dictate your moves. Choose your music then use it’s natural characteristics to plug into the graphic chart below. Look especially at form, melodic direction, tempo, and dynamics.

🪂 What are the sensory benefits of parachute play in music?

When we think of the benefits of parachute activities for elementary music, it goes beyond just music.

The controlled movement, rush of air from the parachute, and the vibrations from motions like shaking provide lots of sensory inputs for kids. Pair those with large motor movements using up & down arms, walking in a circle, shaking, and bending for a release of pent-up energy and emotional regulation.

Sensory Activities for Prek-Grade 1
For my youngest learners, I love the “Parachute Tent.” Small groups lie on their backs in the center while the rest of the class lifts and lowers the fabric to a steady beat. The gentle brush of fabric and the “whoosh” of air provide a calming, tactile experience similar to sensory brushing techniques.

For Grades 2-5
For parachute activities for elementary music with older students, I use routines set to classical or pop music to provide structured sensory input. These movements help with bilateral coordination and provide a grounded way to experience musical dynamics and phrasing through physical resistance.

🪂 Where can I find the best parachute songs and music routines?

Finding music with the right tempo and form is key. Here are some of my favorite “tried and true” routines that I’ve used in my own classroom to teach musical form (AABA) and rhythmic precision.

How do you teach musical form with Trepak from The Nutcracker?

Using the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker is a fantastic way to teach AABA form. Because students often recognize this piece from commercials and media, they are immediately engaged.

• The Process: I taught a class movement version while displaying the basic AABA form. (A=jump, jump, jog in place pattern, B=legato arm swings)
• Using Prior Knowledge: Preparing for the partner activity, I highlighted some ideas on my movement wall: locomotor/non-locomotor, levels, complementary movement, etc., and reminded them that they only had to come up with three ideas-A, B, and a coda.
• Exploration: Then I gave them the parachute and told them I’d play the piece repeatedly for a few minutes so they could work out their routine. During practice time I’d call out A, B, and coda.
• The Performance: Then the big performance with everyone. Half the room performed while the other half watched, discussion on what they saw, etc., and then switch groups.

This video helps solidify the FORM of Trepak!

What are great parachute routines for K-5 music students?

Great parachute activities for elementary music includes routines using music students love and are familiar with, or music that has a dynamic element to it! Here are examples using pop, Broadway, movie, and classical music.

Eye of the Tiger Routine

Star Wars Parachute Music Activity

Spring by Vivaldi

The Greatest Showman

Extended Parachute Activities for Elementary Music

Monkeys Spinning Monkeys

The viral TikTok song with lots of teaching ideas including a class parachute routine!

Take 5 by Dave Brubeck

Multiple lesson activities including a routine for large or small parachutes for this classic jazz piece in 5/4 time!

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🪂 Parachute Activities for Elementary Music on TPT

How Sweet

Created from text in Winnie-the-Pooh V.1, this song about clouds, rain, and positivity uses a 12-bar blues format, Rock & Roll instrumentation, and includes ukulele chords, prominent dotted half note rhythms, and a melody centering around s-f-m.

There’s a bonus parachute routine included!

Bounce High Bounce Low

Find engaging ways for your students to play BARRED INSTRUMENTS with a NEW easy-to-teach rhyme melody and Orff arrangement, that goes with the CLASSIC song Bounce High Bounce Low. Includes a FUN parachute activity!

🪂 How do you teach melodic direction and vocal exploration with parachutes?

With it’s directional movements, parachutes are perfect for vocal exploration activities! Parachutes are essentially giant visual aids for pitch. Because the physical movement of the fabric perfectly mirrors melodic contour, it is a favorite tool for vocal exploration with all my students K-5.

Up and Down Melodic Direction

Activities

• Up & Down Glissandos-Perfect for all students but especially your reluctant singers, put an object such as a stuffed animal (or two or three) into the center and “sing” for them as you lift and lower the parachute. The object of the game is to keep the animals from falling off the parachute. When you use multiple animals, if one falls off, it stays off. The game can continue as long as some animals remain on the parachute.
  • Sensory Music Activities Fun-keep the up and down movement and glissandos going as you choose different students to lie down on their backs in the middle. The whoosh of the air and brush of the parachute as it comes down can be thrilling but also “chill”ing, similar to a brushing technique. Safety: holding the parachute up high, call out students (by name, shirt color, birthday month, etc. to slowly go to the center and lie down)
• Sol-Mi Songs are perfect for this basic up and down motion. Sol La Mi songs sometimes work too if the la is by the sol and can just become incorporated into that same “up” motion. Songs include Star Light Star Bright, 1 2 Tie My Shoe, Doggie Doggie, It’s Raining It’s Pouring.

Songs

• Sol-Mi Songs are perfect for this basic up and down motion. Sol La Mi songs sometimes work too if the la is by the sol and can just become incorporated into that same “up” motion. Songs include Star Light Star Bright, 1 2 Tie My Shoe, Doggie Doggie, It’s Raining It’s Pouring
• Sol-Mi-La Songs where la is in a pronounced place are strong visually and physically on the parachute. The parachute positions are mi on the floor, sol with hands by waist, and la with hands up high. You may need to slow the tempo to get the feel. Songs include Bounce High, Bounce Low, Snail Snail, We Are Dancing In the Forest

🪂 What parachute routine should I feature next?

Let me know in the comments below!