Kiwi Crate is a kids’ craft and activity subscription that comes with everything you need to complete a great project or two, usually a pair of crafts that can be used as toys or playtime props. The box is geared for ages 5-8, and the projects are always age-appropriate, though some require more parental assistance than others.
Kiwi Crate is the most popular craft and activity subscription box for kids!
This month’s theme is Robots & Coding! Kiwi Crate includes all necessary supplies for the featured activities, plus explore! magazine.
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first box of Kiwi Crate!(or KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate, Koala Crate, and Doodle Crate).
You really need very little from home to do the crafts. Usually, you only need a pair of scissors (they sent us a Kiwi Crate branded pair in our first box!), but often the pieces are pre-cut, scored, or otherwise prepared for you already. The crate includes self-adhesive items or glue/glue dots if needed for the crafts.
An issue of explore! magazine is included in every Crate. It is full of fun content that brings the project to life. There is always a comic featuring Steve the Kiwi and his pals, plus lots of historical and scientific information relating to the current theme.
explore! teaches kids some of the science at work behind the project. It usually includes extension activities and some simple observational experiments to learn more about the principles underlying the project.
Our kids love to go through everything in the booklet first before starting the main project. There is really a lot to look at and read – a comic, puzzles, and games – and it really extends your young one’s engagement with the Crate. The comic and activities in this explore! depicted robots as machines that follow instructions very literally, preparing the kids for the specificity, simplicity, and precision required when programming.
explore! has read, draw, learn, explore, eat, and make designated activities.
Each expands on the theme of the box, whether through factoids, drawing activities, or recipes, but the variation is helpful for engaging different learning styles and interests.
Every Kiwi Crate comes with a unique Steve sticker (like your merit badge for completing the box). The first box of an annual subscription includes a poster for displaying your earned stickers.
The second booklet that comes in every crate is the actual instruction booklet for the crafts, and often it includes additional activities beyond the extension projects included in explore!
Each Crate usually has three activities – either separate projects or phases of a single, large project. The booklet includes an inventory of all the supplies included in the Crate, plus a messiness and parental involvement rating for each project.
This Crate started out with a simple project, making a robot buddy!
A whole sheet of stickers was included, so the robot could be decorated in a number of ways. Now we had a buddy to help us with the remaining activities!
Step-by-step instructions guide you through the project. They are clearly written and very easy to follow, pointing out potential pitfalls so you don’t go astray. Parts to be assembled are always marked or otherwise made distinctive to avoid any confusion — this second phase of the project included a pair of jigs to ensure our track was built properly.
Using the jig, assembly was very simple.
The pieces could be moved around the board and rotated to create a variety of paths. The Crate also included destination markers and a deck of cards calling out the destinations. The kids had to design a track to get our rabbit where it needed to go.
This part of the activity was extensive and included a coding sheet where we set out the step-by-step instructions, or program, the rabbit needed to follow to get to the right place. More advanced variations of the activity were also suggested, such as setting the code out on the sheet and “programming” your board from there.
Our little bunny, complete with a stick on face and fluffy tail, was able to navigate the pathway quite well.
The kids also had fun just racing him around in circles!
Kiwi Crate is reliably awesome! They pick technical topics, but they are approached in a fun and engaging way. We love that the Crate is suitable for a wide age range (years 5-8 actually covers a lot of ground, educationally and developmentally) – there is enough information and complexity to immerse older kids, while the light-hearted and approachable nature of the box makes it easy to use for Kindergartners, too. Kiwi Crate is great at gently introducing some science, history, and other lessons into the projects, offering both entertainment and educational value.
Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box!
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