Atlas Crate is a subscription box for kids from parent company KiwiCo. This box is designed to spark the curiosity and sense of adventure in children ages 6-11 and help them become citizens of the world. Each month they will deliver materials and instructions to provide hands-on experiences to help them develop their sense of cultural awareness.
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,
- 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 Atlas Crate box, for 6-11-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 Atlas Crate
The Subscription Box: Atlas Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping. Save with longer subscriptions.
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 about the world.
Ships to: The U.S. for free, Canada for $3.95 per month, worldwide from $4.95-$6.95
Atlas Crate September 2019 "Germany" Review
1 of 4
The country we explored this month was Germany and we received this envelope full of exciting information. I love the greeting in another language and the detail of the string closure on the back; it makes it just a smidge more exciting being able to physically open this! On the bottom of the envelope, there is a list of what is included in our crate and a fun Atlas Quest to complete using our newfound knowledge after exploring this month's country.
1 of 3
In our first box, which was based on the world, we received an Adventure Book that contained cards for each of the continents and we are able to add to it each month as we receive cards for each of the new countries. They also provide a sticker for us to add to it as well which is a fun way to track our travels! Everything in this box is incredibly organized and nicely packaged making it easy to locate it all.
1 of 3
The cards for our adventure book are bright, vibrant, and full of tons of information about Germany on each side. I always enjoy the fun facts page and this month we also got to learn about the origin of gummy bears and Castle Frankenstein!
1 of 2
While most of the pages contain information for us to read, there are always a few "do" pages that provide instructions on activities related to the country. This month they provided a recipe for pretzels and the directions for a dance called a "schuhplattler." We had fun trying out our dance moves which involved a lot of slapping our feet!
1 of 2
While we didn't get a chance to try the recipe yet, we did have some play-doh on hand so we attempted to follow the instructions for folding a pretzel. They turned out pretty well!
Activity #1: Car & Launcher
1 of 3
Our first activity was to make a car and launcher since Germany is home to the famous Autobahn roadway. Fun fact: on our European road trip when I was in high school my dad was able to get our trusty minivan up to about 100 mph on the Autobahn. This was a fun tidbit for the kids to learn about their Grampa!
1 of 3
The directions were separated into parts and they were so clear, detailed and easy to follow with colorful pictures and diagrams.
1 of 3
The first step was to add these foam stickers to our launcher sides.
1 of 3
Then we followed the directions to slide the pieces of our launcher together by making sure all of the arms and notches lined up.
1 of 5
Then we attached this yellow piece which would become our button and we used rubber bands wrapped around it and our launcher base to hold it in place.
1 of 4
Then we added this long arm sliding it through the holes and then securing it with more rubber bands. Now our launcher was complete!
1 of 5
They provided several pieces for our car that the kids were able to decorate. One side of the car parts was blue while the other was white and blank. They provided some fun stickers and a set of colored pencils for us to use to decorate.
1 of 2
The kids really got into designing their cars!
1 of 2
Once they finished decorating, I slid the side arms of the car base into the slots on the bottom of our cardboard car sides.
1 of 5
Then we used these two dowels and four circles to form our wheels. They provided both large and small wheels and we could choose which to use. There were little clear O-rings that were used to hold each wheel in place on the rod.
1 of 6
To secure our car top and hood my daughter added these foam sticker strips to the edges and then we folded the parts over our car base and secured the ends to the bottom of the car.
1 of 3
Now it was time to line up our car with our launcher.
Here is our car in action! We simply pull the long arm of our contraption back, fit the front of the arm into the slot behind the car and push down on the yellow piece to release it. The kids have been having fun playing with this! Although, our paper hood and top are getting a bit beat up. The base is still doing great though so we can easily replace the body of the car to fix it up!
Activity #2: Fairy Tales
1 of 3
Our next project was to write our own fairy tales after we learned about the Grimm Brothers.
1 of 3
We received this sheet of stickers and a set of wooden blocks to create a set of dice to help us with our stories.
1 of 2
I LOVE the idea here! First, we talked about different types of words and then we went through our sticker sheet and got to write in our own words based on what type each color was. We had adverbs, verbs, adjectives, and nouns such as people, things or animals that we had to come up with. It was such a great way to introduce the concept of the parts of speech and have some fun coming up with our own unique words to add.
1 of 3
Next, we got to work adding our stickers to the face of the dice. Each die received one colored set of stickers. For example, all of the purple stickers went on one die and all of the green stickers went on their own die.
1 of 7
I was already pretty thrilled with the idea of the dice and the parts of speech and being able to roll them to write our stories, but when I realized that our fairy tales were Mad Lib-style, I was even more excited! How cute and perfect is that? In case you're more of a traditionalist, they did include brief versions of each of our three stories: Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and The Frog Prince at the back of the book.
1 of 3
We took turns rolling the dice and then we added our words to the correct spot in our fairy tale. Each box had a color matching one of the die and underneath it had the parts of speech and a number so that later in the story it was easy to reference which word we would need to reuse. For example, our story was Little "Lost" Riding Hood. Underneath the word Lost (which is the word we rolled), it read "adjective, 1" so anytime we repeated the phrase Little ___ Riding Hood, there was an "adjective, 1" underneath the blank space to indicate that we should reuse the word lost.
1 of 2
Once we had all of the blanks in our story filled, my daughter got to work illustrating our scenes for us.
1 of 2
While my daughter illustrated, my son and I played with the dice and made up our own stories as they suggested in our instructions. We rolled a few of the dice and then got silly trying to come up with a story using those words.
1 of 3
Here is our finished story complete with illustrations! It was a bit silly and didn't always make sense, but we had so much fun writing this story together! This is definitely one of my favorite activities that they've ever included!
Verdict: I was a big fan of this month's Atlas Crate box and so were my kids! The creativity and uniqueness of our fairy tale book blew me away and we had so much fun writing our stories and coming up with different words for our stickers! It was one of those perfect educational activities where you don't even realize how much you're learning because you're so involved and having fun. I thought it was also balanced out very well by our car and launcher project and the fun extra activities such as pretzel-making and our German dance. This box is such a fun way to learn about other countries each month for only $19.95 plus free shipping and this month it was well worth it!
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 KiwiCo 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 Atlas Crate?
Please do not enter your email address in the Name field or in the comment content. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *. Remember to post with kindness and respect. Comments with offensive language, cruelness to others, etc will not be approved. See our full comment policy here.