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Movie Themed Educational Activities for Kids

Movie Themed Educational Activities for Kids post image

Do you like to watch movies with kids? I like movies. Good movies provide a lot learning opportunities for kids and they can learn things they would not from other sources. In addition to watching the movies, there are a lot simple things you can do to maximize the learning from the movies. We have introduced ideas on how to teach with movies. Today we share some movie themed educational activities for kids.

Educational Activities for Kids Based on Movies

movie themed educational activities for kids
Some simple activities for young children is to re-create the movie characters, either by drawing, or by using play dough. This is an example of minion based on the movie Despicable Me.

If you are watching a movie as a family, and some are too long for the younger ones, you can do some activities during the movie to keep the little ones’ interest, like this one finding the characters.

I like this idea of movie character stones. These examples are from the movie Frozen, but you can make these character stones based on any movies kids like. Kids can use these stones to create their own stories using these movie characters.

Another good idea is to turn kids love of a movie into reading interest. Usually you can find many books based on a kids’ movie, like these LEGO Movie books.

When kids are old enough, you can start some deeper learning activities, like this science challenge based on Big Hero 6.

These spelling and math activities based on Harry Potter is also very interesting, and sure will attract kids’ interest. In the post, you can also find science and art activities that can link to the movie.

For more movie ideas for kids or for your family movie nights, please visit our movie collection page Educational Movies for Kids.
Educational Movies for Kids

{ 207 comments… add one }
  • Katyann Marne Driver

    My little girl loves the movie Brave we watch it multiple times a week I love watching just about any Disney movie with her <3 Thank you for the chance we want Netflix so bad to be able to watch a variety of cartoons with Aria.

  • rachel

    We love the classic Disney movies–as well as the newer ones like Big Hero 6.

  • Anna Nguyen

    My children love Big Hero Six!

  • brittani adams

    My son loves Big Hero Six!!

  • Laureen

    By kids like Big Hero 6.
    Thanks for the chance to win!

  • Donna K

    We like Frozen.

  • janet

    My grandkids like “where the red fern grows.” and old yeller.

  • Stephanie Harriel

    The Sandlot!

  • Leah Shumack

    Frozen is still on full blown rotation at my house….how much longer til that goes away and we can watch something new? LOL

  • Alicia Boarts

    We love despicable me, both one and two. And the Rio movies.Big Hero 6 made me cry, and my daughter won’t let me watch frozen because I sing too much. Now we are patiently waiting for the minion movie, I hope it doesn’t disappoint

  • My kids love The Lego Movie – but also the Fox and the Hound 2!

  • Gwen

    My kids are all about spongebob. I like AirBuddies

  • Tina

    My daughter loves the movie Wreck It Ralph. I know she knows every line 🙂

  • Amy Craft

    My daughter loves all the Disney movies, especially any that involve princesses.

  • pamela j

    We like watching Scooby Doo movies with a big bowl of popcorn.

  • Jennifer Boehme

    My nephew is into Spiderman and any superhero right now. His list includes Shrek and Finding Nemo.

  • beth dunlavy hoppe

    My kids love the minions and the Despicable Me movie.

  • fancygrlnancy (Nancy Partin)

    My boys have lots of movies they enjoy. One of the more recent loves is Big Hero 6

  • Amy Honious

    My kids are all grown now, but every one of them LOVED the Harry Potter Movies! BTW, we watch Netflix all the time-thanks for the great giveaway!

  • Jena

    We love the Disney Princess movies at our house!

  • Trish

    We love all Disney movies, especially Cinderella.

  • James Robert

    Oh, this one is easy for one of my 5 kids. They saw Frozen and one of my twins just fell in love with Olaf. She had to have Olaf everything and still does.

  • Jennifer Corter

    Oh, my little guy absolutely LOVES the Incredibles! It’s all he’s been watching lately!

  • Amanda

    Oh we love Netflix. My son has many favorites on there, he loves to have movie nights with me and looks forward to planning them every time daddy works late or we have time on the weekends!

  • Ashley metzger

    We love watching the Grinch who stole Christmas and Elf every year for Christmas and at least once or twice during the year 🙂

  • Robyn L

    One movie we love to watch is a holiday movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” . We have to watch it at least two to three times during the Christmas season 🙂

  • Laura K.

    My daughter and I love watching The Sound of Music together. It’s a classic and I love being able to share that with her.

  • Melissa B.

    We love all Disney movies, especially Beauty and the Beast. We usually watch a line-up of Disney movies before we visit Walt Disney World each year.

  • Jeanna

    My kids enjoy watching Jessie over and over again!

  • melissa daudelin

    We love Frozen! Or any disney movie!

  • Allyson T

    We love FROZEN!

  • Sarah Cool

    My niece and nephew love despicable me

  • Kathy Luman

    When my grandson came over one night I suggested we watch a kiddie movie instead of cartoons which he normally watches. I put on Daddy Daycare and his eyes never left the screen. We had a great time watching that movie together. I can’t wait to pick another one for us to watch together.

  • Sarah S

    Despicable Me 1 and 2 are our family favorites for sure! Really looking forward to the Minions movie coming out soon.

  • Shawn A

    We have always loved the classics like Mary Poppins.

    shawn113(at)hotmail(dot)com

  • Sabrina P

    We used to subscribe to Netflix. I stopped because we get free movies from Amazon Prime.

  • Grace Mitchell

    I actually don’t like the selection of kids stuff on Netflix…

  • Victoria

    My boys love watching The Lorax.

  • Angela Saver

    Our kids love Lion King! We have watched that movie sooo many times!

  • Amy Conyers

    My son and I loved watching Daniel Tiger on Netflix! Sometimes we would do the same activities they did and Ricky would LOVE it! It was our morning routine while baby brother took his first nap of the day!

  • Dawn Hecke

    My daughter loves Mary Poppins.

  • Wendy Pesce

    When my girls were younger they loved Harry Potter. Her friends mom and I planned a whole summer day around the books with all sorts of crafts, activities and snacks. They all had a great day

  • Cindy Miner

    My kids love the new Spongebob Movie “Sponge Out Of Water”. They just watch it over and over again. They also enjoy the Kids Bowl Free program and are getting really good at Bowling and it’s fun and free!

  • Jillian Too

    Our little guy loves the Lion King.

  • Margaret Maggie Porter

    My grandson is into the movie Lion King. He just discovered it and watches it over and over

  • Connie

    We enjoy How to Train Your Dragon 2.

  • Rennie D

    My l.o. loves big hero 6.

  • Lauren

    My kids like Big Hero 6.

  • Nancy

    We like the movie Charlotte’s Web!

  • Dusty Schnur

    My boys love Disney movies but Despicable Me 1 and 2 are their favorites at the moment.

  • Angel Ray

    My four year old daughter and I love watching tv together. The Croods and The Lorax are two of her all time favorites . We also love watching shows like Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger.

  • angie ukena

    My son loves to watch Scooby Doo

  • Emily N.

    Disney and Pixar movies are always favorites. Also, we really liked the Veggie Tales movie.

  • Cheryl B.

    My Grand-daughter loves Scooby Doo and we enjoy all the different movies Netflix has.

  • Allie

    My child likes watching Tinkerbell movies

  • beverly harrold

    i love mash, dragnet and adam 12 and teaching my grandchild about daniel tigers neighborhood

  • beverly harrold

    i enjoy mash, dragnet, adam12 and emergency and i am teaching my grandbaby about daniel tigers neighborhood.

  • Shea Adams

    My son loves Wreck it Ralph!

  • Lisa o

    My husband enjoys sports movies I like army wives

  • Tess M

    I love Arrow

  • Emily l

    We love sons of anarchy!

  • Emily

    My favorite show on Netflix is breakout kings and prison break and the blacklist! We love to catch up on TV and watch movies as a fam.

  • Kathryn Hyatt

    They love Fly Away Home about the little girl finding the motherless geese and teaching them to fly.

  • Erica Pallutch

    My daughter is 3 and she is still in love with frozen! She also loves to watch Mickey Mouse 🙂

  • Samorjj

    My boys loved Rise of the Guardians. Not everyday you see Santa portrayed as a machete wielding Russian and have it work! Great movie! Not violent though it almost sounds as it should be.

  • hannah

    My niece and nephew love Despicable Me. 🙂

  • Rachelle Anderson

    My kids love the old Mickey cartoon movies. Once in a while we will get pizza and eat it in the living room and watch a movie. It is the highlight of their week!

  • Heather Kelly

    My children and I recently watched the old Annie movie, and the newer one yesterday. My almost 6 year old daughter that she really likes both movies! I too like them both. The newer one was a great remake and tribute to the first one.

  • ellen beck

    We love the older Disney movies. Old favorites like The Lion King is always a good movie. We allso like Lion Wiych and the Wardrobe. Oftentimes especially in the summer we can go to the library and tie in the book and in the case of animall themes we look up the animals and where they come from.

  • natalie z

    My boys love dolphin tale

  • Nicole Sender

    My grandsons love anything Star Wars!

  • Diane Cooper

    My husband and I are grandparents to an 8 year old boy who spends every Saturday night with us. We are working our way through all the really old Disney movies we grew up with; The Wonderful World Of Color Movies that came on every Sunday evening. We feel he is learning some valuable life lessons from these wonderful old movies.

  • Trish

    The Harry Potter movies are great favorites at my house!

  • Tracie Cooper

    My nephew loves The Sandlot!

  • Claire

    Toy Story is a favorite.

  • Kim

    My son loves Cars while my daughter loves any movie with a princess or animals.

  • Leela

    My kids love all the Minion movies.

  • Kathy

    We love to have popcorn and make a movie night with Dad. We pick all kinds of movies. Movies her Dad and i grew up on or newer kid movies! One of our family favorites is Dispicable Me.

  • Ronalee Duncan

    The little guy really likes the movie Happy Feet.

  • janetfaye

    The Croods and The Nut Job are two of our favorite kids movies to watch.

  • Leigh Anne Borders

    We love to watch any Disney movie. We love The Lion King the best.

  • Thomas Murphy

    My son loves the iron man movies.

  • Laurie W.

    My little guy LOVES the Cars movies.

  • Gayle J

    My nieces love Frozen and just about all the Disney movies.

  • Kalesha Peterson

    My nephew loves Cars, Toy Story and TMNT. We have been doing a lot of TMNT themed stuff 🙂

  • Sharon Schoepe

    My son loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies

  • Lorene desjardins

    My daughters love watching “Brave” over and over again!

  • Holly Mitkowski

    We love the Lion King and Aladdin!

  • Mercedes

    We watched The Little Mermaid and drank sprite out of mason jars with a bit of food coloring in it so it looked like sea water. Ha! It was cuter than it sounds. 😉

  • Alysia Dufraine

    We love Spirit. My daughter grawls like a dog at the horses .

  • Patsy Foy

    My daughter loves Pokemon movies

  • Sarah

    Despicable Me 2 is one of our favorites. They’re watching it now in fact!

  • Dominique

    My kids and I love any sort of Disney movie. My son loves Cars.

  • Andrea Sargent

    We are loving Frozen still!!

  • Linda Kwolek

    The movies my kids loved to watch are the “land before time” movies.

  • julie moore

    We love Divergent

  • Kristie

    Cinderella is a favorite in our house. They like to watch TV shows too like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Wally Kazaam and Paw Patrol. kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.

  • sherri

    My kids both love Big Hero 6!

  • Charlene Drake

    My grand daughter loves to watch Cinderella.

  • Aarti Dogra

    Frozen of course!!!

  • Miranda G

    My son loves Daniel Tiger!

  • Katherine

    Our 3 year old son finally can sit down and watch a movie with us. He prefers anything disney but is really enjoying the cars movies.

  • kenneth

    my nephew loves to watch happy feet!

  • Cassandra

    Despicable Me! Is the ongoing favorite in our house!! The kids just love it. It was interrupted for awhile with Frozen but now its back lol!

  • Sarah Jestings

    Both of my kids love the How To Train Your Dragon movies.

  • Julie Waldron

    We like Snow White.

  • Rebecca J

    All 3 Toy Stories! They could just run in a loop at my house!!

  • Betsy

    my kids LOVE Frozen!

  • Birdiebee

    My granddaughters love the Frozen movie and watch it over and over again.

  • Sunnie

    We just watched Dolphin Tale 2 and we liked it!

  • Connie Tillman

    We like Toy Story and Monsters Inc.

  • Jenn Scott

    Big Hero 6 and Frozen are hits around my house.

  • Sherri

    Out of all the movies we have watched, our family favorites have been the Harry Potter movies, Frozen, Tangled and Happy Feet…..

  • Soo

    My son loves Finding Nemo, but the opening scene is too intense for him, so he makes me skip that part.

  • melissa austin

    any of the harry potter movies!

  • Nessie

    At our hours we LOVE big hero 6 and despicable me.

  • Raina DelRio

    My kids LOVE the Lego Movie.

  • Taryn T.

    We recently watched the Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, and the kids loved both of them!

  • Wendy Browne

    My kids are 19 and 16 now but they really loved Bug’s Life.

  • Kat

    My kids, ages 9 and 7, really liked the movie Tomorrowland. On DVD they like to watch The Sound of Music.

  • Katie Anderson

    M son is still young but when he gets a bit older I cant wait to show him the old classics like Angel in the Outfield, Homeward Bound, Little Rascals, Beethoven.

  • jenn giannetto

    my sons really enjoy the toy story movies.

  • golden storm

    our family likes to watch the jurassic park movies

  • Terra Heck

    A couple of movies that we really like are Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. Thanks.
    partymix25(at)Hotmail(dot)com

  • Billie

    My son is older so we watch a stand up together. My brother’s girlfriend’s daughter came over though and we watched the Littlest Pet Shop.

  • Yona Williams

    My nephew and I love watching animal-related movies together (like Marmaduke the Movie), as well as Harry Potter.

  • Susan Baughman

    One of our favorite movies to watch together is RV. Doesn’t matter how many times we’ve seen it, we still laugh until we cry.

  • Kelli Taylor

    My kids love all the Shrek movies.

  • Christy Maurer

    My daughter and I watch Netflix a lot! She is 20 and on summer break from college, so we get a lot of mother/daughter movie time! One movie we just watched was Stand by Me since it is sort of a classic, and she’s never seen it 🙂 You can’t go through life without watching this journey the boys go through and all of the deep conversations they have.

  • Linda Bradshaw

    We have had Netflix for about 3 years now. I love to watch all the Disney movies with the kids. This would be so awesome!

  • amanda rauch

    our family loves watching movies! we like probably all movies but some of my sons favorites are the Pirates of the Carribean movies with Johnny Depp.

  • Gail Fernandez

    My kids and I love Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2!

  • evans s

    My kids like Frozen. We make Minions out of Twinkies. My daughter also had me help her make the Littlest Pet Shop furniture set–she saw the video on you tube about making your own furniture and we used my scraps of fabric, cardboard, and hot glue to make a chair, sofa, and table. We still have the bedroom set to do.

  • Holly S.

    My kids can’t get enough of the Avengers movie! Superheroes are in!

  • Stefanie Gladden

    the kids love Frozen & Tangled!

  • Allison lesley

    My kids current favorites are Big Hero 6 and The Little Rascals

  • Tina W

    I recently made the kids watch The Incredible Mr Limpet (one of my faves from childhood) and the boy said “That’s no Nemo” at the end of it. I almost fell over laughing.

  • Patti Hess

    My kids and I just watched Epic together!

    pattifritz2000 at yahoo dot com
    thank you very much for the chance

  • Trish

    All classic Disney movies are a hit at my house, but Lady and the Tramp is probably our favorite!

  • Tabathia B

    One of my kids favorite movies is finding nemo

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

  • Donna Cheatle

    We still love watching Monsters Inc together!

  • LaTanya

    We love Big Hero 6

  • Leigh Anne Borders

    We watched Frozen and then made some snow and went outside (in summer) and had fun having a snowball fight. We were thinking of Olaf too;)

  • KJ Skib

    My daughters can’t get enough of Frozen and Rainbow Rocks Equestrian Girls.

  • lissa crane

    We love the Lego Movie! My son even had an “Everything is Awesome” Lego birthday party where we showed the movie!

  • Tasha Wilkerson

    My girls love Frozen (obviously!) But also Despicable Me and Home are some favorites!

  • Amanda Sakovitz

    We loved Turbo!

  • John R

    We love to have movie nights outside in the summer on a blow up screen and a projector. it’s real fun and the kids invite friends over and we make tons of popcorn!

  • Emily Acker

    My nieces and nephews like all things Pixar.

  • Marty C.

    My kids are doggie/kittycat-obsessed toddlers, and their current favorites are “Kitten Party’ and ‘Puppy Party’, each of which is an hour-long festival of kitty/puppy footage with annoying narration (we normally turn the sound off.)

  • Marija

    My kids love a lot of the classic Disney movies. Snow White is one of our favorites.

  • Kay RT

    Anything Mickey Mouse or Frozen!

  • wendy

    the lego movie

  • chera

    we love How to train your dragon movies and series. we’ve painted a rock with toothless eyes on it.

  • Ashley

    We love Disney movies!

  • Megan C.

    My little one’s favorite movie right now is The Book of Life. We colored sugar skulls the other day. Now she want to make the floral headband with bright red flowers.

  • tracee

    We like Nightmare Before Christmas

  • Kristine

    Right now my son is living the Harry Potter movies, hunger games & divergent.
    My littlest ones though, love Mickey Mouse, princess Sophia re first & caillou.

  • ioana c.

    My daughter lives for tv , she loves all movies!! I try to keep her away as much as possible! Loves all Disney movies and watches all kinds of kid shows on Netflix.

  • Emma

    I love the learning with movie ideas! The favorite movie in our house is still Frozen. (I didn’t say *my* favorite movie, lol!)

  • Tiffany Church

    My kids LOVE “The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.” I feel like it is an oldie, but a goodie!

  • stephanie girard

    my kids love watching leapfrog on Netflix!

  • Heather R

    Just this week the 4 year old, 18 month old and I all enjoyed watching Fantasia after what was a pretty hectic morning. They loved it as much as I hoped they would!

  • john hutchens

    my kids like the lion king . we have fun watching it on family movie night

  • Mia

    We like watching Lilo and Stitch

  • Tammy

    Dolphin Tale & Dolphin Tale 2 are hits!

  • amanda s

    We love netflix! My kids love the movie How to Train your Dragon!

  • Laura A.

    We love Frozen at our house! 🙂

  • Les Johnson

    My daughter is obsessed right now with the movie Matilda. It is a really cute movie.

    katja9_10 at Hotmail dot com

  • Kelly

    Disney movies are always a hit!

  • Lindsey L

    My son just saw Lion King and loved it!

  • Abby Barge

    My stepdaughter LOVES watching the Boxtrolls which is one I wouldn’t have thought she would have enjoyed!

  • staci mefford

    we absolutely love family movie night. My son, age 9 and loves baseball, really likes the Sandlot movies. thank you for your generosity

  • Analisa

    My son has lots of favorite movies, but lately his top pick has been Wreck It Ralph. Thanks for the chance to win 🙂

  • Tammy Woodall

    The girls absolutely loved “Frozen.” After watching the movie so many times, I can honestly say I know all the words to the soundtrack of “Frozen.” “Frozen” is already a classic in our home, which means it will be watched many more times over the years.

  • Taylor

    UP is our favorite movie!

  • Dana

    My son loves Cars!

  • Serge B

    My kids love to watch The Incredibles!

  • Sarah L

    I can watch Mary Poppins over and over (good thing I like it)
    Thanks for the contest.

  • Angelica

    We love Monster’s Inc. Big time! Lol. I think I can quote the entire thing.

  • Kathryn Hyatt

    We love Homeward Bound

  • Becky Lyons Borgia (@BeckyatGUNT)

    Our family enjoys throwing movie themed parties. So much fun to literally celebrate specific movies.

  • Melissa C

    I have 4 kids they each have their favorites but their favorite movie is the fox & hound!

  • Tabitha

    My daughter and i love the princess bride!

  • Nicole Pyles

    Monster House is always a favorite in my house!

  • Alina Hahn

    Our son loves Despicable Me and Big Hero 6. He is excited about the new minion movie too!

  • Jennifer Finn

    bed knobs and broomsticks

  • Sus

    We still love Toy Story.

  • Laura ari

    My kids always love to watch Elf!

  • Megan Tilley

    We are always watching Mickey Mouse Movies, she also likes to watch Turbo!

  • Kimberly O

    Despicable Me is a favorite of the whole family. Monsters, Inc., too – fun for all ages! Thanks!

  • deanna

    We love to watch Beauty and the Beast. We made a book cake one time when we watched it in honor of Belle.

  • Audra

    My daughter loves the penguin of Madagascar movie

  • Barbara Montag

    The kids love watching Charlotte’s Web.
    thank you

  • Danielle Porter

    Anything Frozen. . .or Despicable me!

  • Ani

    My kids (and I!) really love the Lego Movie.

  • Tamra H

    Frozen is definitely a family favorite, that has been seen about 100 times!

  • Ally

    We LOVED Big Hero 6!

  • Michelle J.

    We all enjoy Big Hero 6!

  • Angela

    My kids enjoy any Disney movie, especially the princess ones.

  • Dorrie Turner

    My kids like “scary” family friendly movies, like Frankenweenie, Monster High, Hotel Transylvania, and Jurassic Park.

  • Liz N

    I don’t have kids, but my niece LOVES Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer shows! Even when it’s not Christmas. She has many stuffed Rudolphs too – she lined them all up in a parade one night when she was supposed to be sleeping! Too cute!

  • Robert Brown

    My oldest (8 year old) daughter loves the new Disney films, but always seems to enjoy herself when we show her older movies like Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

  • Jennifer Cervantes

    My girls love frozen and toy story for my younger kids and my older ones love malificent and pitch perfect.

  • David

    Our kids like any of the modern cartooons, like Frozen, Despicable Me, etc, but my wife has been buying older cartoons like Bambi, Lion King and Aladdin, and they love those as well. I don’t think they even notice the difference in animation.

  • Jennifer Saarinen

    Despicable me is definitely a favorite in our house and Pinterest is full of fun craft ideas and acitivies with minions. Always a hit with the kids!

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