Kiwi Crate (from parent company KiwiCo) is a subscription box for children ages 5-8. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to complete 2-3 crafts centered around a theme, plus additional materials to help educate young learners!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups: Cricket Crate is for 24-36-month-olds, Koala Crate is for 3-4-year-olds, Kiwi Crate is for 5-8-year-olds, and Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate are for 9-16+-year-olds. There really is something for every age with this company.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Kiwi Crate box, for 5-8-year-olds.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
About Kiwi Crate
The Subscription Box: Kiwi Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping
The Products: Crafts and DIY projects for kids, with supplemental learning kits, booklets, and activities. Crates are filled with materials and inspiration to encourage creativity and curiosity. Projects cover a number of developmental areas through art, science, and imaginative play.
Ships to: U.S. for free, Canada for $6.95 per month
Kiwi Crate June 2018 Review
The theme for this month was Fun with Flight. This was the included booklet that showed us the various activities in our crate and provided instructions. The pictures are very clear- detailed and in color- and I like that they always provide a materials list for everything that should be in your crate.
On the back of the booklet was our sticker for this month’s project and their social media links.
This is the little sticker chart that we received in our first Kiwi Crate along with our welcome note. This time we got to add our Flight sticker after we completed our projects.
Each month you get a Kiwi Explore! magazine that goes along with your crate’s theme. There is a letter from Steve the Kiwi and a little story to go along with the theme. This month’s story involved the characters making balloon rockets. The rest of the magazine is filled with additional activities and information related to flight.
Some of the extra activities this month included building a helicopter, making a straw flyer and this cute hot air balloon maze. They also included information on rockets and airplanes.
Another bonus activity was making a paper airplane by cutting out the triangle in the booklet. Then we folded along the dotted lines to make the wings. It was very easy to set up and even more fun to fly!
The first activity in our box was to make a rocket launcher. As usual, all of the materials were so well organized. It was easy to locate all of the parts, especially with the detailed color pictures.
The first step was to build the base using the wooden pieces and the paper tube. I folded the paper tube and slid the tabs into the slots and then slid the feet into place. Once we had that setup, I added the wooden arches to the top - there were holes cut out of the tube that the ends clicked right into. Very simple!
Next, I put together the tubing and straw with the foam connector piece and put the tubing through the holes of the launcher base.
We added a dowel to the bottom of the base to help keep it flat on the ground.
There was a second dowel that we could use to support the straw end and change the height/ direction of our rocket launch. I thought this was pretty cool because it gave us a lot more options to explore and will be great for teaching about velocity and distance!
Here is our finished launcher! Since every piece was designed to fit into one another easily, this didn’t take us long at all.
The next activity step was to make the rockets for our launcher.
First, we made the fins for our rocket by folding along the lines on the papers and wrapping them around the bottom of the straws. Then we taped them with the included stickers and added the foam pieces to the other end of the straw for our tip.
They provided us with enough materials to make 4 rockets. I love the colors they chose for this too! Easy to see as they are launching.
Fortunately, we had a beautiful day to test out our rocket launcher! The kids absolutely loved this and we had so much fun! I loved that even my 2-year-old was able to load the launcher by himself (with his one good arm) and send off his rocket all on his own. The rockets began to come apart a bit, mostly because my son kept taking them apart, but they were incredibly easy to fix. I think before our next launch mission I’ll add a bit more tape and maybe even some glue so that they are a bit more toddler-friendly, but overall, this was an incredibly fun family activity for us. I think we all were equally impressed!
I love that they also included some extra activities that you could do with your launcher if you wanted.
The next activity was to make our own kite. They actually sent enough for us to make 2 kites, which is awesome!
The first step was coloring them in with the markers that they included in the box. One kite was plain and allowed you to make your own design while the other had several shapes that could be colored in easily.
After coloring, we folded along the lines which were clearly marked and taped them up with the stickers that they included. We then taped the straw across the marked line at the top. I love that there really is no room for error with these projects!
Next, we taped our tail onto the rectangle and strung some yarn through the hole that was already punched into the bottom of the kite for us. So easy to put together and we didn’t need any extra materials other than scissors.
My daughter and I just did a quick test run this evening, but I was surprised at how much air the kites got. They are the perfect size for a kid to fly around on their own! Kites can sometimes be frustrating to a kid, so I appreciated that the small size made them much easier to work with.
Verdict: This was an incredibly fun Kiwi Crate and a perfect activity for a summer evening! We had such a great time playing with our creations as a family. Everything was so easy to put together and stress-free because everything was included and planned out clearly. While we didn’t get much into the educational aspect since my kiddos are younger than the target age, there was plenty of information provided and it could easily be a great lesson on flight and velocity! I also love that our rocket launcher can be used over and over again! We might need to find some more rockets, but those could easily be replicated. At $19.95 plus free shipping, I think that this was another great value for a fun and educational box!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
Coupon – Save 40% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link!
Check out all of our Kiwi Crate reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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