Last summer, while still in lockdown, we decided to have a movie week. I picked some old ones, some new ones and then planned a week of activities with these movies as the theme. With each day and each movie, came a unique, important lesson. I love a good kids movie. The humor, the quirky characters, and the creative story-telling that just resonates with little ones. This ended up being one of my favorite weeks too, because the options are endless. There are so many films that help teach important lessons, you literally can pick your favorite films and plan a day around fun things associated with each one. We love Toy Story because we can all relate to having favorite toys, and how cute is it to think that those toys love us back? All little ones have a special relationship with their favorite toys and every parent appreciates the friendship lesson woven into that story. Just because new friends come along, doesn’t mean there’s no room for the old ones. Change isn’t always bad. There are similar life lessons in The Secret Life of Pets, and you get the bonus of Snowball, the ringleader of the underground network of strays. His band of misfits makes the film even more enjoyable, at least I thought so. R.I.P. Ricky. Let’s not forget about Gru, the evil genius determined to steal the moon in Despicable Me. Three adorable orphans come along, and someone’s priorities shift a bit. The love a parent has for their child is certainly life-altering. Most of us gladly give up our dreams and schemes for world domination in favor of diaper changes, bath time and reading books. Or one book, let’s say the same book, over and over and over. Those tiny little fingers, toes and smiles just steal your heart. The other great thing about this week is that you can spread it out if you like. Keep this list in your back pocket and pull it out when everyone is in the mood for a movie day. You at least have some options to add to the rotation of various fun things to do with your little ones. Maybe you do one of these days one week and grab another one for next week. Maybe you like to do movie Fridays. If so, you’ve got some ideas for the next 5 Fridays. Either way, read on to see what movies we watched and the corresponding activities.
Bare Necessities
Our first day was dedicated to The Jungle Book. The boys had never seen the original 1967 film and I thought it was a classic worth watching with them. We got dressed in our jungle colors and they learned all about the original man cub and some beloved characters like Baloo and Bagheera. We giggled as we watched Mowgli attempt to fall in line with the elephant colonel’s troops and narrowly escape that silly python. His friends protected him from the prowling tiger and taught him a thing or two, in song of course, as is true Disney fashion. Two of our favorites include “I Wan’na Be Like You,” and “The Bare Necessities.” After the movie, we talked about what the bare necessities are and then played a little jungle charades. I laughed as the boys and I attempted to act out different animals from the movie. We talked about who their favorite characters were and their favorite part of the film. Then we moved on to make the first page in our, “Everything I Need to Know, I Learned From,” book. Page 1 was The Jungle Book of course and the boys filled in something they felt was an important lesson. My oldest said, “man, the jungle is a dangerous place.” So true.
At snack time, we made our own animal cracker parfaits. Just take chocolate and vanilla pudding and add animal crackers and bananas and you have an easy, yummy jungle treat. Instructions are included in the link below from the Fun Learning Life site. For a cute craft, we made our own pythons with hypnotizing eyes just like the clumsy villain, Kaa from the movie. The second link below takes you to an article that has a picture of the design that we followed. For reading time, I recommend The Grumpy Monkey, by Suzanne Lang. All in all, it was a great jungle-themed day. The boys learned a new phrase, ‘the bare necessities,’ and we talked about what that means. We also discussed some things we take for granted every day, but are in fact very thankful for like food, water, shelter, & clothing. With sneaky snakes and prowling tigers, we’re just glad we survived the day.
Try Everything
On Tuesday, our movie was Zootopia, which is a cute movie with some great themes to teach our kids, but as a bonus, there’s a mystery to solve. To fuel up for our day of super-sleuthing fun, we started with Zootopia inspired donuts. We bought our favorite donuts and then made some icing for them following the instructions for the donuts in the link below. You can find additional Zootopia inspired activities in the same article as well. We loved going on the adventure with officer Judy as she pursued her crime-fighting dreams. We also loved her reluctant partner, the fox Nick Wilde. Having a sloth work at the DMV was genius, as well as the tiny little shrews that were actually crime bosses. We even love the song “Try Everything.”
We talked about their favorite characters and their favorite parts as well as some good lessons we learned. What was Judy’s challenge and did people think she could do what she wanted to? Why or why not? The film reinforced a great lesson: work hard to accomplish your goals, no matter what others say that might discourage you. Not judging others or discriminating against them because of pre-conceived ideas is a good theme as well. These are some big concepts that are worth talking about with your kids. Not all foxes are sly, shady characters. We added page two in our books for what we learned from the film, and then moved on to solve our very own mini mystery. I created a little case for my two detectives and let them interview witnesses (all played by me) and examine the clues. I made up a crime ( a robbery), 4 suspects and some clues and let them go to work. I have included a link below to the mystery we solved. I must tell you it is completely silly, and I performed wardrobe changes in order to be all 4 characters. This was fun because the boys got a kick out of me in disguise each time, but you can obviously do something similar and put your own spin on it. Especially if you have more participants. The boys both wanted to be detectives so that left me doing a one-woman show. I used the art pamphlet (also included in the link) to prove someone’s innocence given that they just won a bunch of money. For our mystery, the lipstick ended up giving away the thief. It proved the dog walker was in the house that afternoon even though it was her day off. It was her shade, which comes out in the interview. You can put your creative touches on any of these details of course and switch things up. I made the names particularly ridiculous because, well, kids love that. For page two in our books, my little ones came up with, “never give up,” and “be kind to animals.” Good stuff. I suggest rounding out your day with Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes.
Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes
Be Yourself
Ferdinand is a movie I highly recommend if you and your kids have not seen it. Loosely based on The Story of Ferdinand, it has an impressive comedic cast including David Tennant, Kate McKinnon, and Anthony Anderson. Peyton Manning is even the voice of one of the bulls in the film. The characters are adorable and some of our personal favorites include the little hedgehogs, Una, Dos and Cuatro. You’ll just have to watch the film to find out what happened to Tres. I love it when sweet Ferdinand just sits down and refuses to fight the matador. There’s a particularly funny scene when Ferdinand and other bulls get into a dance off with the Lipizzans show horses. Who doesn’t appreciate a good dance off? In honor of that fun scene and because we love to dance at our house, we put in Just Dance and held our own dance off. We have the game for the PS4, but I believe it is available for the Nintendo, including the Switch and Xbox too. If you need some good clean fun, just go up against your child following along with the moves on the screen to new or old songs. There are various levels of expertise, and the best part is that it records you so you can play back your crew’s choreographed masterpiece for some extra added laughs.
For snack time, we made our own churros, which is a kind of donut found in Spanish, Portugal and Latin American cuisine. I had never made these before, but they were easy and tasty. Recipe link below. We threw in a little art and decided to draw our own bulls, named Ferdinand of course. If you would like a book to go along with the theme of the day, I suggest The Monster Who Lost His Mean. It is about a monster who isn’t really good at being mean and scary. He decides there are other things that he would rather do and pursues those instead of what was expected of him. Check it out at the link below. When I asked the boys what they thought an important lesson from our film was, they responded, “to just be yourself,” and “not to fight.” For the third day in a row, I think they nailed it.
Dream Big
I have to admit, we were having way too much during our movie week and Thursday was no exception. We watched Monsters University, the sequel to Monsters, Inc. This movie takes you back to the beginning to show how Sully and Mike became friends. There are some old and new slithery characters and some important lessons all throughout the film. Lots of good stuff to pick from in this one. Again, I highly recommend this film. I like the fact that it wasn’t too predictable, and things didn’t quite end up like I expected. Teamwork, friendship, and several good life lessons mean this was time well spent. For our Monsters University activity, we made our own scare team badges and decided to pick something that we could teach each other. Graham, my five-year-old, taught us how to make the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Very fitting since that is his signature dish. I went over the steps for how to tie shoelaces. Then they decided they wanted us to take turns trying to scare each other just like in the movie.
For snack time, you can make a monster smoothie for you and your little ones to enjoy. Follow the recipe in the link below to make a yummy blue “Sully” smoothie in honor of the big blue monster whose voice is played by John Goodman. Later, for a treat, I took some icing and added some food coloring to make it a nice lime green color just like Billy Crystal’s character, Mike in the film. We dipped some Oreo cookies in the icing and added candy eyes. Some had just one eye like Mike, and some had several. The boys and I talked about all the important lessons in the movie, including teamwork, integrity, and the pure grit of going after your dreams. As we added our fourth page, the boys landed on teamwork as a good lesson to highlight. Good stuff! For a book recommendation, Otis and the Kittens is a sweet story not only about bravery, but also teamwork. Check it out at the link below.
The Golden Ticket
On Friday, I went back to an old classic, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. If you, like me, are familiar with the original 1971 version with Gene Wilder, then I am sure as soon as you started reading this section, the song, “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket,” started playing in your head the same way it does in mine. That isn’t the only song I remember either. “The Candy Man,” and “Pure Imagination,” are ones I may or may not have sung along with while watching the film. Who could forget the Oompa Loompas? Solid parenting advice coming from those guys. Makes you completely overlook the fact that they are orange and have weird hair and shoes. The boys hung with me through each of the spoiled, bratty children and their vices to the very climactic end involving the everlasting gobstopper. We talked about all the important lessons and even though they got distracted and wondered if we too could have a river of chocolate, I managed to refocus them to the task of adding a final page to our book. The overwhelming choice? Be honest. Slam dunk. Charlie proved to be a little boy of good, honest character at the end and that was the difference that changed his life.
Since it was Friday, I readily admit that the activities we did were just plain fun. My boys like the show, Dude Perfect, and every once in a while, the guys do a top ten list. Tyler did a top ten candy list which was just all wrong in my opinion, so I thought we could have a little candy factory of our own and do it right. We grabbed some of our favorites and made our own top ten list. This took some time and much debate. There was some snacking during the process. The kind of snacking that made me dread their next dental check-up. If you want to get super creative, try coming up with your own parenting advice, Oompa Loompa style. So many topics to work with. School, the environment, kindness, being a good friend, or being a good sport. The list is endless. Mine is below and is similar to the one that addresses Mike T.V.’s problem in the movie.
Oompa Loompa Doompety doo, I’ve got another riddle for you
Oompa Loompa Dommpety dee, If you are wise, you will listen to me
What do you get if every day is the same? Kids always playing video games
If their only hobby is a form of screen time, They will not have a well-rounded mind
Add books, music, art, and sports too, And they will have much knowledge
Like the Oompa Loompa Doopety do!
I hope you have enjoyed this post and that it has given you some ideas for fun activities centered around some great kids’ films. Everyone loves a movie day or movie night, right? So, why not add a little extra something educational and fun to go along with it? There are so many films, both old and new, and there is so little time. I understand an entire week is a lot to tackle. We were doing this last year during summer lockdown, so we had nothing else going on except shopping for toilet paper like the rest of the country. If you like the idea of doing movie Fridays, then you have a head start on an entire month of options. These subjects are important topics to discuss with your kids, and I like the fact that doing activities like this helps me be intentional about having those conversations. Talking about the bare necessities, working hard for your dreams, being yourself, teamwork and being honest was time well spent. I’d love to hear from any of you if you have done similar movie activities with your little ones. As they get older, the options will just increase, and I look forward to many more movie days and nights with my boys. Have a wonderful week and thanks for visiting mockingbirdmom.com.
Signed,
The King of the Swingers, the Jungle V.I.P.
