Kiwi Crate is a subscription box for kids ages 5-8 from the parent company KiwiCo. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to complete 2-3 crafts centered on a theme, plus additional materials to help educate young learners!
This review is of KiwiCo's Kiwi Crate (for ages 5-8), which costs $19.95 per month.
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.)
First Impressions
It looked like we had some fun things in store for us with this box! Firstly, I noticed the cool magnetic wand and the stackable crayons, both items we would be able to keep and get use out of beyond the box. After checking out the activities, I knew my kids would be excited to explore magnets through them!
What's Inside This Box
This booklet highlights our theme for the month and it includes colorful, detailed illustrations to go along with our easy-to-follow instructions. It looks like we have three separate projects this month all related to magnets. On the back of the booklet, they include their social media links and a sticker for this month’s project.
This is the little sticker chart we received in our first Kiwi Crate along with our welcome note that we can add our sticker to.
Our Kiwi Explore! magazine is always a nice bonus complete with a comic and some extra activities that really enhance our lessons each month! It's educational and full of fun and useful activities for us to try.
My kids enjoyed doing a magnet hunt by going around the house with their magnetic wand and figuring out which of our belongings were magnetic! This kept them busy for a while!
Activity 1: Magnetic Theater
The first activity was to make a magnetic theater. They provided some wooden pieces, two different backdrops, and a foam base for the main part. They also provided some foam stickers, two paper vehicles, string, green chips with magnetic rings, some rubber bands, and most importantly a magnetic wand. We actually have our own set of these so we were able to double up on the fun!
First, we assembled our vehicles; a helicopter and a submarine. We added the foam stickers, green chips, and some string to the center of our papers before closing them up.
Then we assembled our theater. We added the wooden pieces to the foam base and then used the rubber bands to secure the top. Our ocean backdrop slid right into place. We also received a sky for our helicopter.
Then we slid our submarine into place and put our wand on the top to hold it in the air.
The kids thought it was so cool that when we moved our wand, our submarine would move, too!
They also provided a large paper straw, some tiny pom-poms, and a target so that we could turn our theater into target practice.
We assembled our target the same way as our vehicles and then loaded it up!
The kids had so much fun with this little game! They simply blew the pom pom out of the straw to hit the target and knock it down.
Activity 2: Magnetic Mazes
The second activity involved some magnetic mazes. They provided a paper with two different mazes, some foam stickers, a maze base, some clips, and some pieces to make our own little magnetic characters.
We added a green chip to the bottom of the foam donut, and then we stuck the paper stick into the center and slid a character to the top. Then we placed it on the green base board and put our wand underneath. More amazement as the character slid around the board with ease!
Next, we tested out the two mazes that they provided. The clips were to hold each maze paper in place, but I forgot about them until much later! Oops!
They even provided some extra papers and this fun stackable crayon so that we could design our own mazes.
They were excited to test out their own mazes that they drew.
Activity 3: Magnetic Face
The last activity was so simple and fun! They provided small pieces of pipe cleaner and some magnetic googly eyes so that we could add a face to our wand.
They had some fun playing around with them and their faces turned out pretty cute! I love that we can do this over and over again, too.
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $19.95
What a great value this month! We got to explore magnets in so many different ways and the activities that we did really allowed for some creativity and free-thinking that inspired them! I am actually going to keep all of our activities stored inside this box to use as a free-time activity for school because I know how much they enjoyed it and will continue to enjoy it!
Key Takeaways
KiwiCo makes the most engaging projects and they know how to inspire meaningful learning. The boxes are well-organized, the activities are age-appropriate and it is always just the right mix of fun and learning!
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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.
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