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Egg parachutes

It’s down to you to protect your chocolate egg. There are plenty of materials available – what will you use?

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You’ll need

  • Cotton wool balls
  • Scissors
  • Sticky tape
  • Chocolate eggs
  • Newspaper
  • Bubble wrap
  • Packaging materials
  • Cloths
  • Disinfectant spray
  • Paper cups
  • Balloons
  • Tinfoil
  • Paper straws
  • Rubber bands
  • Clean, dry recycling boxes and packaging
  • Step ladders (optional)
  • String

Planning and setting up this activity 

  • Set out an identical set of equipment and materials for each group.
  • Make sure you have some spare eggs, in case any of the teams break theirs while trying to protect it.
  • You could also use different objects, such as a chocolate orange.

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone together and explain your going to make a parachute for the eggs to protect them from smashing. 
  2. In groups, decide together which ones they’ll use to protect their egg. 
  3. Each group should work together to protect their egg.
  4. When each group’s ready, cover the drop zone with some newspaper to make it easier to clean up any mess. 
  5. Make sure everyone is stood or sat back from the drop zone.
  6. An adult should then drop the egg from at least two metres high. You could use a stepladder. Only adults should climb up high.
  7. Everyone should count down before you drop each egg. Make sure to drop all of the eggs from the same height.
  8. Check all of the eggs for damage. You could discuss which methods and materials worked best. 
  9. If there’s time, people may want to protect another egg in their teams. Can they use what they’ve learned about materials and techniques to make the best possible protection?

Reflection

This activity needed everyone to work together as a team to solve a problem and make decisions. How did each team approach the task? Did they make a plan before they started making anything, or did they get hands on right away? If people were going to protect another egg, would they do anything differently? What sorts of things help a team to work together well? Everyone should take it in turns to share one thing they did well in this challenge.

People may be proud of themselves for making decisions, listening to their friends, coming up with a new idea, or testing something to see if it works. Wearing the protection everyone made helped to keep the eggs safe. Do people ever wear similar protection? People may say that people wear protection (such as helmets) for activities such as cycling or scooting.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Rubbish and recycling

All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.

Food

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.

  • To make this activity easier, you could drop the eggs from a smaller height.
  • To make this activity harder, unwrap the chocolate egg and limit the materials allowed. You could also use heavier objects, such as chocolate oranges.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

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