In the Jack and the beanstalk story, Jack throws the bag of gold down from the top of the beanstalk and then he climbs down to the ground. Climbing is hard work so I thought that we could make Jack a parachute so that the next time he climbs up the beanstalk he has a quick and easy way to get back down to the ground.
What is a parachute?
A parachute is a device used to slow the movement of a person or object as it falls or moves through the air.
Introduce the force called gravity.
Gravity The force that pulls things to the ground, the heavier the item the quicker it will fall.
The parachute creates a resistance which slows the item/figure down for a safer landing.
What you will need…
Tissue paper/piece of material
Cellotape
Scissors
String/ribbon
Lego or small/light figure
• First encourage your child to use the scissors to cut a square out of the tissue paper/material.
• Cut 4 strands of string/ribbon, make sure they are the same length
• Cellotape one strand of string/ribbon to each corner of the paper/material
• Take the ends of the 4 pieces of string and tie them all to your figure
Test out your parachute, throw it up in the air or drop it from a safe height.
You could test out different materials or different shaped parachutes and see which one works best to safely bring Jack back down to the ground. Discuss how the different materials feel. Reinforce language such as rough, bumpy, smooth, soft, hard or fuzzy.
You could also try cutting a small hole in the middle of the parachute will allow air to slowly pass through it this should help the parachute fall straighter.
