Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with some storytime inspiration? I have! I was struck by the Storytime Muse with ideas for my summer programs, which will again be outdoors. During the short storytime portion, we get out our parachute and do some fun songs with it – always the same each week. I’ve themed them loosely for the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) theme that my library uses. For “All Together Now,” for example, I said we all had to work together to make the parachute move. For “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” I used tunes like Row Your Boat for an adventure on water or A Smooth Road for one on land.
This year’s theme is “Unearth a Story,” and we chose weekly themes like dinosaurs, dirt/mud, worms, and buried treasure. Having some parachute activities that fit the overall theme is perfect for my plan. I’m looking forward to using these three and maybe they will help you, too. Happy summer planning!
See detailed posts about previous Outdoor Summer Storytimes here.
Not an original, but a new way to use this song for a parachute! This would be an abbreviated version, not doing the “stop and eat their food” part. We would imitate the kind of movement we’re singing about with the parachute – marching being even and steady ups and downs, tiptoeing being very tiny waves, jumping being very big ones, and running being wild, fast shaking! Then, make the earth flat by pulling the ‘chute backward. Granted, the littlest ones might not be able to follow directions well enough to actually execute that part, but preschoolers would probably love that.
Parachute Song: We Are the Dinosaurs
We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching (wave chute in steady beat)
We are the dinosaurs, whaddaya think of that?
We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching
We are the dinosaurs we make the earth flat (pull parachute back to make flat)
(tiptoeing, jumping, running)
Source: Laurie Berkner, from the album Whaddaya Think of That?
I think the hard part of this one for me will be to remember to reverse the tune so my voice is high for “first level” and goes down, since I’m so used to the opposite for the elevator version of the song!
Parachute Song: Let’s Go Digging
(tune of Let’s go Riding on an Elevator)
Let’s go digging deep in the earth, in the earth, in the earth
Let’s go digging deep in the earth, dig along with me!
[Let’s start at the ground level and dig down!]
(start with chute high and high voice)
First level, second level, third level, fourth level, fifth level… (voice goes down)
[Oh, look! I found a fossil!/buried treasure/worm/dino bone]
And up, up, up, up, up! (voice goes up)
Source: piggyback lyrics by Ms. Emily Library
In my groups, some kids always want to go underneath the parachute. This rhyme would be a good one to direct the adults to do the waving and the kids to go under and pretend to be worms!
Parachute Rhyme: I’m a Worm
I’m a worm and I’m wiggling so slow (wave slowly)
I help to make the flowers grow (raise parachute high on “grow”)
But when I see a bird I wiggle quickly down (wave and lower chute)
Where I can wiggle and play underground! (wave low to ground)
Source: original (Ms. Emily Library)
† Click the image of rhyme/song sheets to download a non-branded PDF
Storytime with Ms. Emily Library 