This weekend sees the Farnborough Air Show 2014 open to the public.  One of the world’s largest exhibitions and air displays, the international aerospace event is celebrating 100 years of aviation history this year.  Whether you will be among the hundreds of thousands of visitors passing through their gates, heading to a show more local to you, climbing inside one on your own travel adventure or just looking up at the sky from your back gardens, there’s plenty of printables available on the internet to keep your little ones’ thoughts in flight…

Coyote Productions’ blog Confusions and Connections says it gives him the opportunity to talk about some of his greatest loves – “Film, old computers and manned space missions” – and it’s his cinematic passion that led him to link to activity sheets provided by Disney on the release of Pixar’s Planes last summer.  Colouring sheets, things to do on a journey, how to make your own paper planes and even an air show checklist are included.

If animated action keeps your child happy the “Disney’s Planes helps your young ones” post also contains a link to his blog post on Despicable Me 2’s activity sheets – “Despicable help for your own little minions”.

But if your child is a particular fan of Dusty and his friends then why not have a go at making 3D Planes inspired by Red Ted Art‘s toilet roll craft suggestion?

And, as Planes 2: Fire and Rescue is getting ready to soar into cinemas on August 8, Disney already have activity sheets available to go with the sequel including colouring pages, a maze, memory game, hidden characters and camping recipes.

Ink Factory’s own reward chart range includes this High Flyers illustration along with the sticker sheet to accompany it.

It could be a particularly good one to use in the run up to an air show outing or even a holiday abroad – perhaps even in the airport lounge itself to try and help encourage your child through those long, boring waiting periods!

For more boredom busting colouring sheets try searching through the designs on offer from Printable Colouring Pages which include cartoon airplanes, fighter jets and biplanes.  If you are going away then at least a few pieces of paper and some crayons don’t take up much room in your hand luggage and could be an essential if you come up against any unexpected delays.

And, whether you’re jetting off somewhere exotic or not, these editable airline tickets from Earlylearninghq.org.uk are great for role-play scenarios – perhaps your little ones could use their flight boarding passes to board the car for a trip to their grandparents or maybe you could use them as promise vouchers for so many trips to the park or swimming pool during the summer holidays?

Do you love finding free 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 fun-filled links and we may be able to feature them in a future post!