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 Atlas Crate will deliver materials and instructions to provide hands-on experiences to help kids develop their sense of cultural awareness.
FYI! This box is featured in our Returning to Learning back-to-school guide. Take a look at our subscription recommendations to see how they can help make your life easier during this unique school year.
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups:
- Panda Crate for 0-24-month-olds,
- Koala Crate for 2-4-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 and Maker Crate for ages 14 and up.
There really is something for every age with this company!
This review is of the $19.95/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, and worldwide from $4.95-$6.95
Atlas Crate September 2020 "Madagascar" Review
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This month we are traveling to Madagascar and this airmail envelope is full of information for us. 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.
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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.
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The cards for our adventure book are bright, vibrant, and full of tons of information about Madagascar. My kids loved learning more about Madagascar (they watch a lot of Wild Kratts!) and especially loved the page about the endemic animals.
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They always include some "do" pages and this month we have a recipe for a coconut vanilla pudding cake, Godro-Godro, and they taught us about Masonjoany which is a beautiful way that natives protect themselves from the hot sun.
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The kids thought this was really interesting!
Activity #1: Leaping Lemurs
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My children were very enthusiastic about getting to make their own lemurs. The directions here broke it down into simple. easy to follow steps with pictures and also gave us some great facts about lemurs.
Part A: Make the Launcher
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The first step was to make our launcher. My son added the foam stickers to the base of the launcher. Then we connected it to the top piece with a rubber band. Then it was just a matter of sliding the wooden stick through the holes and securing it with some tiny rubber bands.
We added a little felt strip to the center and then pulled the larger rubber band taut and our launcher was ready to go!
Part B: Make the Lemurs
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The kids were so excited to make their lemurs! They provided three different colored fuzzy pom pom bodies for us, three different tail styles, and lots of different felt pieces for the body, all of which had adhesive on them making them easy to stick together.
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We simply had to follow the guide on our directions sheet to see which colors went together since we were making three different species of lemurs. They loved that they were all so different!
Here are our cute little lemurs. So simple and fun!
Part C: Make the Baobab Tree
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The last step was to put together our baobab tree to launch our lemurs into. They provided the tree pieces and we just had to assemble them.
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First, we placed the large foam oval onto the base and then slid in the large triangle piece to form the body. Then it was just a matter of folding up the tree base piece and slipping the tabs into the slits on the side. Then we added the foam pieces to the marked spots.
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Then the smaller tree pieces were slid into place on the large tree pieces again by slipping the tabs into the slits. Then the whole thing was placed on top of the tree base and we used a few small adhesive pieces to hold the sides of the tree together.
We set up our tree at one end and our launcher with a lemur on top at the other. Then we were ready to launch!
It took us a little while to get the hang of it, but it was fun to launch the lemurs and get them to land in the different areas of the tree. They provided some great troubleshooting tips for us and reminded us of how our lemurs' tails could help them hang from the tree. Once we had tired of launching them, the kids quickly took the tree and lemurs to play with! They really loved this activity.
Activity #2: Batik Bag
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I love it when they included a game from another country. It's such a fun glimpse into their way of life by seeing what they do for fun! This game is called Fanorona and while usually there is some assembly involved, this game was already put together for us.
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It came with a printed fabric game board and these small cardboard black and white circles for the game pieces. The object of the game is to capture your opponent's pieces or trap them to make sure that they can't move. They went into detail about the two ways you can capture and how you can move. While it sounds like a fun game, I think it's one that I'll have to try with my husband before I work on explaining it to my kids since they are a bit younger! I do like that it's all packaged up and ready to go making this one of those games we can keep for on-the-go...when we figure out how to play, of course!
Verdict: This month my children were thrilled to travel to Madagascar through this month's Atlas Crate box! They absolutely loved making their lemurs and I thought it was fun that they turned it into a game with the baobab tree and launcher. As for the other activity, it felt a bit lackluster this month since there wasn't anything to do but actually play the game. We are so used to having to do something on our own to put it together, but this one was completely done for us. I'm sure once we learn to play the game, we will appreciate it a bit more! My children's enthusiasm for the other materials was enough to make it worth it to us this month and I appreciated the well-organized box with easy to follow instructions as usual!
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 more of our Atlas Crate reviews, all of our KiwiCo reviews, and the best subscription boxes for kids!
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