We had one in all three elementary schools I attended. My favorite game was "shark" where everyone stuck their legs under the parachute and rippled it like the ocean while someone crawled around underneath (your really could not follow where the "shark" was). The shark had to grab an ankle and that usually ended up with screaming and pretending to be attacked and pulled under the 'chute. Then the shark would crawl out and take the place of the person who became the new shark.
And it was always fun to whip it up and pull it down real fast and tuck it around your heads and count until the center hit the floor.
We also had the wheel carts, but my mom said they had those when she was in elementary school (60's-70's). And a huge ball, that had to be five feet tall, we played "crab soccer" with.