Summer months are synonymous with family moviegoing with many child-friendly blockbusters scheduled for release to coincide with the school break and 2014 is no different – extend the enjoyment of your cinema trip by downloading some of these activity sheets to accompany the film of your family’s choice…

Earth to Echo

The latest cute alien in need of a way home has inspired SKGaleana to not only link to downloads provided by Scholastic.com’s Out of This World Activities including student worksheets, family activities and posters but to also create their own Earth to Echo printable party kit including a banner, invitations, cupcake wrappers and drinks labels “because, let’s face it, activites and a party are a lot more fun with a cute little alien.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Action-packed epic space adventure Guardians of the Galaxy is Marvel’s latest comic book adaptation and is populated by a range of colourful characters.  Colour them in yourself by downloading the activity pack Christa Thompson links to on her blog The Fairytale Traveler which also includes a door hanger, door poster, craft orb, memory card game, a space maze and space badges..

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The How to Train Your Dragon website has lots of downloads available including paper planes, maze, stationery, diorama, party kit, bookmarks, scavenger hunt, wordsearch, colouring by numbers and normal colouring pages and connect the dots.

There are lots of printables to go with the original book series by Cressida Cowell too.  Hachette Children’s Books provides a range of activity sheets including Viking Party Games, How to Speak Dragonese and a family tree.  Similar resources are included in readinggroups.org Chatterpack which also includes an introduction sheet to suggest how to use them in children’s reading groups.  And on Big Book Babble you can find a teaching pack from the National Literacy Trust including everything you need to hold your own Dragonese Day.

The Nut Job

Brandy, otherwise known as Farmer’s Wife Rambles, offers 15 free Nut Job printables on her blog.  Colouring pages, dot-to-dots, a maze and character masks are included to accompany the bushy-tailed film.  Better in Bulk offers similar downloads to celebrate the release of the animated nut store heist comedy and Cupcake Digital includes The Nut Count and Nutty Measurement maths worksheets among its available downloads.

Planes: Fire and Rescue

Ink Factory’s Up, Up and Away! blog post included a link to the Confusions and Connections blog post featuring activity sheers from last year’s Pixar release Planes.  The sequel, Planes: Fire and Rescue is hitting the big screen this summer and Brandy at Farmer’s Wife Rambles includes colouring pages and an educational activity book in her blog posts (Maleficient printables are also available via that link).  And Inspired by Dis’s Mindy also links to the Disney aviation-themed downloads which include travel bingo and healthy camping recipes.

If you can’t make it to a big screen showing then there’s plenty of printables available to accompany a DVD viewing too.

Frozen

Achieving record DVD sales this year is Disney princess tale Frozen.  Whilst it doesn’t feel quite right seasonally given the heat wave we’ve been experiencing, that certainly hasn’t curtailed fans’ enthusiasm for the icy musical adventure.  Farmer’s Wife Rambles Brandy has this one covered too with Build a Snowman and Memory Card downloads, Red Ted Art offers a Frozen Story Stone activity and Sara of Mom Endeavours goes all out with one blog post including more than 20 free Frozen printables from banners to a scavenger hunt to character silhouettes to a movie-style invitation, that links to another post offering a further 10 Frozen printables including snowflakes and mazes and a third one featuring a further eight crafts and printable activity sheets released by Disney alongside the DVD release.

Attachment Mummy includes The Swan Princess downloads on her blog, Mum Friendly features Rio 2, Better in Bulk has posted Muppets Most Wanted activity sheets and (you can’t beat a classic) Living Locurto offers these Star Wars tags and stickers designed with the ever-approaching new term in mind.

But, if you want the themed activities to start before a screening as well as take place afterwards, then don’t miss Jen’s How to make family movie night more fun post on The Mad House.  Featuring her own printables of a clapboard and sheet to record reviews on she also links to her post Family Film Night on a Budget on A Thrifty Mum which features popcorn boxes, tickets, invites and labels for a food table, Momma’s Playground’s free printable Frozen family movie night tickets and Crafting Chicks Popcorn & A Movie Party Night post.

Do you love finding printables on the internet?  Do you have any particular favourites?  Or have you featured some on your own blog?  Email karen.malpass@inkfactory.com with your links and we may be able to feature them in a future post.