Parachute Play
3 - 5 year olds
Our Mission: To provide a positive and inclusive environment where young people are empowered, build self-confidence and develop essential life-skills through participation in the performing arts.
Children love playing with parachutes! Not only is parachute play FUN, it is also EDUCATIONAL. Parachute play helps children’s cognitive and physical development, increases their school readiness, and develops their imagination and role-play skills.
Parachute Facilitator: Classes are developed and delivered by BJ Anyos (link to Bio). With over 35 years of experience facilitating parachute games with young children, BJ is Canberra’s number one early learning parachute play expert!
Parent/Carer Participation: All classes are for children aged between 3 to 5 years of age and their caregiver. When parents become active play partners, they greatly increase the educational value of the activity while boosting their child's confidence, language skills, and emotional connection.
Early Learning Educator: All of our early learning drama classes are developed and delivered by BJ Anyos. BJ is the Early Learning Coordinator at Questacon, where she has worked for 24 years, and is one of Canberra’s leading early learning educators.
Parent/Carer Participation: All classes for children aged between 3 to 5 years of age are designed to be enjoyed with their parents and caregiver.When caring adults become active play partners, they greatly increase the educational value of the activity while boosting their child's confidence, language skills, and emotional connection. Therefore, children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Developmental and Educational Focus Include:
Spatial Reasoning: Spatial language is used constantly during parachute play (e.g., up/down, on top/ underneath, in/out, on/off etc.) Research* suggests that the more spatial talk young children hear - the more spatial talk they use - which increases their spatial reasoning - which results in higher primary school math performance.
Imagination & Creativity: Children use their imaginations to role-play with the parachute, turning it into many different things. They might pretend they are hatching out of an egg or jumping in puddles. What will the parachute become next?
Physical Development:Children move their whole bodies as they move the parachute, which helps them develop their gross motor skills. The variety of whole body movements includes shaking, jumping, crawling, flying on top of the parachute and more.
School Readiness:With the support of a caring adult, children learn skills that will benefit them at school. These skills include following instructions from a teacher figure, taking turns and learning the social patience required for group interaction and shared play.
Executive Function Skills: Children develop their working memory as they remember 2 or 3 step instructions, their cognitive flexibility as the parachute is used for many different purposes and their self-control as they learn to play different games with the parachute.
* Hear More, Use More Study (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011)
Class Day and Time (during ACT school terms):
Tuesday: 10.40am - 11.10am
Friday: 10.40am - 11.10am
Saturday: 10.40am - 11.10am
We aim to offer classes WHEN you want them. Please let us know if you want this class at a different day or time by clicking here
Location:
Child Players Studio: 89 - 91 Tennant Street, Fyshwick, ACT.
Price:
$25 per casual session
$22 per session for whole term enrolment (i.e. $220 for 10 week term)
FREE ‘come and try’ class available:
Cancellation and Refund Policy
Regulate Early Learning Drama Classes Schedule
(every week during ACT school term)
| Tuesday | Friday | Saturday |
|---|---|---|
| Puppet Play | Puppet Play | Drama Role-Play |
| 9.45am - 10.25am | 9.45am - 10.25am | 9.45am - 10.25am |
| Parachute Play | Parachute Play | Parachute Play |
| 10.40am - 11.10am | 10.40am - 11.10am | 10.40am - 11.10am |
| Drama Role-Play | Drama Role-Play | Puppet Play |
| 11.20am - 12pm | 11.20am - 12pm | 11.20am - 12pm |
Families who enrol in more than one early learning class on the same morning receive a %10 discount on their 2nd and 3rd class.
Between classes families can relax in our studio reception area while children eat morning tea and adults have a coffee and biscuit!