Green Kid Crafts is a kids subscription box company that sends you up to six science and art kits each month for $29.95 (plus free US shipping).
Green Kid Crafts strives to encourage the growth of the "whole child," which includes fostering a sense of care for our environment. Their process and products seek to have a minimal environmental impact, and the activities in each box aim to help kids engage with nature in creative ways. It's not surprising that Green Kid Crafts was actually founded by an environmental scientist!
Choose between the Junior Discovery Box (ages 2-4) or the Discovery Box (ages 5-10+), both of which are $29.95/month. Green Kid Crafts also offers a Sibling Discovery Box (ages 2-10+) for $49.95/month, which sends two of each project. All subscriptions include free shipping.
This is a review of the Discovery Box for ages 5-10+, which costs $29.95/month + free shipping.
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 Green Kid Crafts Discovery Box
The Subscription Box: Green Kid Crafts Discovery Box
The Cost: $29.95 per month + free shipping. Save with longer subscriptions.
The Products: Materials and instructions for up to 6 science and art projects aimed at helping children ages 5-10+ get creative and engage with nature.
Ships to: The US for free, to Canada and select countries for a flat rate of $6.50/month
Green Kid Crafts "Alternative Energy" December 2019 Box Review
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Our theme this month is Alternative Energy and this booklet included information about different energy sources including some renewable and those that are non-renewable. They make the concepts so easy to understand and include such great examples to provide just enough educational information related to our projects. There were also instructions for our projects, a hidden image coloring page, and some reading suggestions.
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Each box includes a new sticker for us to add to our Green Kid Crafts badge chart. This month we received the Alternative Energy Expert badge.
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Everything comes packaged neatly in these recyclable bags making it easy to find our supplies for each project.
Project 1: Self-Propelled Boat
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Our first activity was to make a self-propelled wooden boat. They provided several pieces of wood, some tacky glue and a piece of sandpaper for us to use.
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First, we sanded down the wooden pieces to make sure they were nice and smooth on all sides.
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Then my daughter used the glue to stack the cabin and mast support pieces on top to form the front of our boat.
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She added glue to the hole and stuck the mast rod into it.
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Then we added some glue and connected these two pieces to form an X. We then had to set everything aside to dry.
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Once it was dry, we added a rubber band to the back of our boat and slipped our X piece in between the two sides of it.
To operate our boat, we simply twisted the X piece back towards us so that it wound up our rubberband. Then we placed it in some water and let it go!
Here is our boat in action! Obviously, we didn't have much room for it to go anywhere, but the kids are excited at the prospect of testing it out in the bathtub soon!
Project 2: Wind Turbine
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Next, we got to make our own wind turbine using this plastic turbine pole and axel.
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We stuck those together and then placed the white pinwheel paper on top of it making sure the axle was through the center hole.
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Then we began folding each corner in to make our pinwheel shape.
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We added this little flower to the center and then placed the orange ring on the end of our axle to hold the pinwheel in place.
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Then I pulled the pinwheel up so that it was on the orange center and would spin freely.
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Then we used the stickers they provided to decorate it and add some color!
We were supposed to take it outside and do some experiments with the wind, but instead, we just did a little bit of blowing on it since it was so cold outside. I did end up putting it out front so we could watch it and see if the wind would move it, but the ground was frozen, so it didn't work out as well as I had hoped since I had a tough time getting it in the ground! We will definitely save this one for warmer weather though.
Project 3: Potato/Apple Clock
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This next project was really cool! They provided this digital clock piece for us to use to make our own clock out of either potatoes or apples. We had some potatoes on hand so we grabbed two of those!
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We inserted the digital clock piece into the plastic holder they provided making sure the wires stuck out through the holes.
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Then my daughter wrapped the ends of the red wire around one zinc plate and one copper plate. She then added the wires from the clock to the other zinc and copper plates.
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We stuck the wired plates into the potatoes making sure that each potato had one zinc and one copper plate each.
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It worked! The kids were impressed and excited to see the digital clock turn on!
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We then tried a few other things such as pears and two glasses of water. They all helped to power our clock! So cool!
Project 4: Solar Fan
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Next, we got to make a solar fan. They provided this sturdy fan piece and several pieces of wood to assemble to form our fan base.
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First, I screwed this long wooden pole into the center of our square base.
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Then we used the adhesive pieces to stick two wooden poles underneath our base.
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We used a zip tie to hold another wooden piece horizontally on top of the center pole.
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They provided this motor which had a pin in the center that our fan attached to. I then used another zip tie to secure the motor and fan to the end of the pole.
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Then I used another piece of adhesive to attach the solar panel to the other side of the pole. Then it was just a matter of twisting the wires together and our fan was ready!
There was not much sun out in the morning, but we set everything out so that we could check on them throughout the day.
Finally, the sun came out, although I had to move our fan to get it to hit the solar panel better. It worked pretty well!
Project 5: Solar Energy Bracelet
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The last activity we did was to make a solar energy bracelet.
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This was just adding UV beads to a pipe cleaner and then twisting the ends together to form a bracelet.
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We set it outside to see what would happen and observed the colors changing. We were also supposed to test it out using sunglasses and sunscreen and see how they helped to protect our beads (and skin or eyes) from the sun. It was a bitterly cold day outside so we didn't get to do either of those just yet, but it will be a good lesson for another day.
Project 6: Wind Powered Sailcar
They also provided instructions on how to turn our box into a wind-powered sailcar. They suggest blowing on the car or taking it outside on a windy day. This sounds like a fun idea that we might try in the spring!
Verdict: This month's Green Kid Crafts theme was a really good one and the booklet was full of great educational information. I thought all of the projects were great and that they did a nice job of showing how wind, sun, or even potatoes can create energy and make various machines work. I do wish this was a box we had received in spring or summer when we can take them outside and really put them to the test, but overall, we had a lot of fun with this box. It felt like a nice mix of products that we have to use over and over again to explore the idea of energy. I think it was a great lesson for the $29.95 (plus free shipping) cost of the box!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Here's what Green Kid Crafts says:
The first box of all subscription orders will ship immediately, through the 25th of the month. After the 25th, the initial box will ship with the following month’s mid-month shipment. After the first month, subsequent boxes will ship around the middle of the month.
Check out all of our Green Kid Crafts reviews and the best kid subscription boxes for more kids' activities!
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