This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® Pop Secret and Fox Entertainment, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #PopForRio2 http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV
It can be easy to plan an awesome super-fun Family Movie Night for your family without breaking the bank. It can also be culturally educational for your kids! In this post I’ll share one of our family’s favorite movies as well as a coupon to save $1.00 your next Pop Secret popcorn purchase {while supplies last}, and a link to the Rio2 More Fun website that offers FREE coloring sheets, back-to-school goodies, movie night games, recipes, craft ideas and more.
This post centers around one of our favorite family-friendly movies – Rio 2, but you can easily translate the activities to just about any movie. We loved the movie Rio and when we saw a display at Walmart to purchase both movies – Rio and Rio 2 we were so excited! We bought the two-movie combo for less than $17 and with two boxes of popcorn and our $1 off coupons we got two movies with yummy popcorn for the entire family for about $20.
We made some of the yummy Brazilian treats from the RIO 2 MORE FUN website, as well as a popcorn necklace for our homemade blue macaw puppet and I printed out some of the activities and coloring sheets from the website for my boys to have fun with and color!
The really wonderful thing about doing this family fun movie night with my husband and kids was that I did not have to go out of my way to plan a themed family night for my family. I just had to scroll down the ideas and activities on the RIO 2 MORE FUN site and select which things I thought we would most enjoy. This made everything really easy and helped me create a memorable learning experience for my family.
Family Fun Movie Night
Rio and Rio 2 are great movies to enjoy together as family for the following reasons:
- A wide variety of colorful birds and animals are the main characters of the movie
- A new culture is revealed from another continent far away
- There’s loads of fun music and dancing
- The main characters have to travel out of their comfort zones – a lesson in growth
- A high value is placed on family
The movies are rated G but I would still advise parents to watch these movies either before sharing them with their kids or watch the movie with their kids so they can explain some of the complex parts of the movie. Rio contains characters that kidnap and smuggle birds, and Rio 2 contains a disturbed tree frog and Cockatoo, and construction workers who are tearing down the rain forest. These antagonists are necessary for the telling of the story. Every good story needs a hero and a villain, and in these movies, even the bad-guys make the story all the more theatrical.
Valuing Family
One of the themes that makes me love these movies is the emphasis on valuing family. Some examples:
- The Toucan, Rafael, is married with 17 children and he illustrates how much he loves his wife by initiating romance with her and by applauding when she sings (even though she sings off-key).
- The main character, a blue macaw named Blu, ultimately chooses his life mate, Jewel – another blue macaw, over his caretaker, a woman named Linda.
- Even when Blu makes a devastating mistake, Jewel does not beat him up about it. She stands beside him and continues to believe in him.
- When Linda and her husband, Tulio, are left to survive in the Amazon jungle, Linda lets her husband know that there is no other place she would rather be.
- When the bird family is reunited it is cause for a huge celebration with every bird signing and rejoicing that the family has been reunited.
Overall this movie makes you feel good to be a part of a family. And that’s something I love to blog about. 🙂
Make it a Movie Night – a Rio 2 Experience
It’s super easy to find lots of fun things to do with your family on the RIO 2 MORE FUN website. If you select the drop down menu you’ll get links to ideas for family fun activities including summer adventure, soccer fever, back to school, movie night, and coloring sheets. There’s even recipes, sing-along songs, BINGO, and even more games and fun stuff you can do.
Our Rio 2 Themed Movie Night
Coloring and Crafts
I wanted to make our movie night an extra special learning experience for our boys so I started off the day by printing out some of the coloring sheets from the RIO 2 MORE FUN website. Here you can see our little guy coloring Blu and Jewel alongside breakfast.
Blue McCaw Puppet
I used a needle and thread, blue feathers, felt, foam and styrofoam, and googley eyes to make our very own blue macaw puppet.
To create the Blue McCaw, I sketched the way I wanted it to look first – you might notice some of my drawings in the photos. When in doubt – create a paper pattern and see if it works before putting your puppet together. The beak was created from a piece of foam that I trimmed into two hooked triangular shapes. One piece is large, for the upper nose, and the other is very small – representing the mouth. I used a piece of grey foam to wrap the beak, and I used straight pins to secure the grey foam to the white foam. I cut the head and neck from the felt in a fat bowling pin shape – not unlike a human profile shape.
I hand stitched the two pieces of blue bowling pin shaped felt pieces together and turned them so that the seam was on the inside. I used a needle and thread to sew the flat part of the beak onto the face of the Blue McCaw puppet. I then cut oval layers of felt in light blue, dark blue, and dark grey for the eyes. I used elmer’s glue to glue the felt layers together and google eyes onto the felt, and I secured the eye piece with a few stitches. If you let the eyes float up from the surface of the face it actually gives the puppet lots of dimension.
I used blue pipe cleaners secured by thread for the eyebrows. All of the blue feathers were sewn on by hand. I added the dark grey felt “smile” last and a fluff of feathers just over the nose as a plume at the center of the face.
The boys were tickled that we had our very own “Blu”. Blu is the blue macaw and main character from the movie Rio 2.
Recipes
I definitely recommend making the recipes from the RIO 2 MORE FUN website. Go to the home page, click on “Download and Print”, then click on “Movie Night”, you’ll see an icon for “Brazilian Recipes” on the screen – that’s where I got the printable recipes to create these easy and delicious dishes!
I baked the Bia’s Beach Balls from cod fish and potatoes. My husband is a steak and potatoes kinda guy but he was pleasantly surprised by how filling this dish was. He really liked the taste and told me these would be a great thing to bring to our next big family gathering. It totally made my day that he enjoyed these. I especially liked the taste of the fresh cilantro. I put a little lemon on my Bia’s Beach Balls, and my husband added more hot sauce to his. Even the boys really liked these! I served these up with a fresh veggie and fruit salad. We’ll be adding this as a regular dish to our family menu.
I also made the Beijinho De Cocoa (chocolate fudge truffles) and the Blu’s Brazilian Brigadeires (coconut balls). The base for both of these Brazilian treats is sweetened condensed milk. They are easy to make, sweet and delicious.
We talked with the boys about how different cultures eat different kinds of foods. We showed them Brazil on our globe and explained that the country of Brazil is far away. The movie Rio 2 is a great way to introduce young children to a new culture and new foods.
Rio 2 Movie Time
We all put on comfy clothes and cuddled up on the couch to watch Rio 2. Of course, “Blu” {our blue macaw puppet} joined us and we enjoyed a little popcorn and movie time fun.
I hope this post gives you some great ideas for your next family fun movie night. If you like these ideas, please PIN this post on Pinterest. Help spread the word about this FREE resource: RIO 2 MORE FUN – for family fun!
Happy movie-watching! What’s your favorite way to enjoy a movie together? Please leave a comment below – I always love hearing from my readers.
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