Koala Crate “Garden Play” Review + Coupon – May 2019

Koala Crate is the toddler subscription box offering from KiwiCo, designed for hands-on learning and fun every month!

KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups:

• Tadpole Crate for 0-36-month-olds,
• Koala Crate for 3-4-year-olds,
• Kiwi Crate for 5-8-year-olds,
• Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds,
• Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds, and
• Eureka Crate for ages 14 and up.

There really is something for every age with this company.

This review is of the $19.95 a month Koala Crate, for Pre-K kids ages 3-4.

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.)

Koala Crate

The Subscription Box: Koala Crate

The Cost: $19.95 a month + free shipping.

The Products: 2-3 fun DIY projects for you to do with your preschooler!

Ships to: US

Koala Crate “Garden Play” May 2019 Review

My family was excited to review this month's Koala Crate! KiwiCo's teaching methodology perfectly aligns with how my kids learn today. My son is in early pre-school and goes to a school that is focused on hands-on and project-based learning. My 3rd-grade daughter attends a school with a STEAM curriculum and was happy to assist her little brother with some of the more challenging tasks in the projects.

This month’s theme is “Garden Play”. While completing the three fun projects, we learned all about gardening, the different parts of a plant, and what plants need to grow. These projects provided the opportunity for my son to be both creative and active while developing and reinforcing skills.

Koala Crate includes a parent’s guide with step by step instructions on how to complete each project. I recommend looking at the instructions and gathering all the materials for the project before engaging the kids. My preschooler lacks any amount of patience, so I wanted to be prepared to get the project started right away!

The crate includes three fun and engaging projects: Growing Plant, Make-A-Flower game, and Garden Apron. The crate includes everything needed for all three projects.

Here are the materials for the Make-A-Flower project. It includes all the materials needed to sort, match, and put together colorful flowers.

Here are the materials for the Garden Apron game. It includes the materials to decorate a garden apron to store our gardening tools.

Let’s get started with the first project - Growing Plant!

The first step of this project is to decorate the tree by creating and gluing paper flowers to the tree leaves. This was a bit messy and while my daughter really tried to transform the paper squares to flowers, my son resorted to simply balling up the paper squares. I called them flower buds!

After decorating the leaves, it was time to build the tree. First, we created the tree trunk which was pretty straightforward. Then, we slid the stems and leaves in the slots to build the tree. This proved to be incredibly frustrating for my son. You really have to push firmly down to get the stems and leaves secured. Otherwise, the tree will topple over.

And finally, our growing plant is complete! You’re able to rearrange the tree stems and leaves to create new plants. It was fun to see how tall we could make our tree before it leaned over.

Let’s get started on the second project – Make-A-Flower!

The first step in this project is to prepare the flower pieces. First, we created the attachable felt flowers. Then we assembled the craft sticks and pipe cleaners to create the stems of the plants. These steps were easy to follow.

Next, we sorted the cards and played the Make-A-Flower game. The cards determine the color flower petals and the number of leaves to add to the flower. This was fun but we quickly ditched the game and created flowers with the color combinations we preferred.

Check out our pretty flowers! These pieces can also be taken apart and put back together to create flowers with different colors and configurations.

Let’s complete the final project – Garden Apron!

In this next project, we decorated our garden apron using felt flowers and yarn. We first decided how we wanted to arrange the flowers on the apron.

The next steps were tricky. It requires you to weave the yarn through the holes in the apron and weave flowers onto the yarn. My daughter completed this project. My son isn’t yet able to tie strings and does not yet have the motor skills to string such small items.

My daughter did all the hard work but my son reaped the benefit! He loved playing with the shovel and wearing the garden apron.

Koala Crate also sends a mini-magazine every month that goes along with the theme of the box.

It includes a story, additional fun activities and even a DIY project using items that are not included in the crate.

Verdict: This Koala Crate by KiwiCo was fun but one of the more challenging boxes we’ve received. The growing plant and the garden apron projects were a tad bit difficult for my son to complete. He’s almost three so just within the age range for this box so, that’s probably to be expected. These are skills we can practice! We did love the make-a-flower game and thought the flowers came out really cute. And, although my son wasn’t able to decorate the apron, he loved wearing it around the house and playing with the shovel.

As usual, all the projects were fun and the project instructions were clear and easy to follow. Considering the great quality materials, educational content and fun projects, the cost of this box, $19.95, is a great value.

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? From KiwiCo: 

Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history – not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.

Check out all of our Koala Crate reviews and the best subscription boxes for kids!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

What do you think of Koala Crate?