Girls Can Crate is a monthly subscription for children between 5 and 10 years of age that promotes the idea that girls can do whatever they set their minds to. Each month features a different female pioneer whose story inspires girls to achieve. Each box includes a 20 page activity book that includes the heroine’s story, 2-3 STEAM activities and creative play props. Boxes cost $29.95 each month with themes that celebrate female pioneers from diverse backgrounds, but the activities themselves are usually gender neutral.
This month celebrated the life of Dr. Maya Angelou.
DEAL: Save 15% on your first box! Use coupon code HELLO15.
Everything in the box!
The card contains trivia about this month’s heroine.
This month’s pointers are all about celebrating DIVERSITY.
The Powerful Poet is the title of this month’s activity book.
Here’s a page that lists what’s inside the crate.
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Her brother is the one who nicknamed her “Maya,” meaning “my sister.” When she was a teenager, Maya won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. But when she was 14 years old, she dropped out of school to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She gave birth to her son, Guy, at 16. Even if she was not able to go to college, Dr. Maya Angelou received more than 50 honorary degrees! Really inspiring!
Did you know that Maya was mute for almost 5 years? And it was during this period of silence when she developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her. And those are the things that made her a great writer/poet!
Aside from being a great poet, Maya was also a performer, a teacher, and even a trolley driver! She also fought for everyone to be treated equally. She’s really determined, powerful, and brave!
The activity book offers a wide variety of activities that will get the kids busy. This month, it included a Writer-Oku which was inspired by the game Sudoku! Kids just have to fill the spaces with each writer’s tool only one time in each line and column.
The booklet also features some known artists aside from this month’s heroine, like Alice Walker, Raven Wilkinson, and Billie Holiday. Meanwhile, the other page had another activity and it’s about making your own rainbow with the help of the Skittles candies!
My daughter tried the rainbow activity. After putting hot water in each glass, she then dropped the skittles, one color for each glass.
Here are the dissolved candies, she actually made a rainbow out of someone else’s clouds! And most of all, she learned about density.
More hands-on activities included in the crate: making your own poetry journal, a dream bird mobile, and a rainbow friendship bracelet!
Of course, to become a great poet or writer, you need to actually WRITE! And the first hands-on activity in this booklet is to write your own poetry.
For this hands-on activity, we received a poetry journal and a set of pencils.
Here are sample pages from the journal! One is about making an acrostic poem, where the first letter of each line spells out a word or message. Meanwhile, the other page is about pay attention to the world by writing about what you feel, see, smell, and hear!
Next is a fill-in-the-blanks poem. It’s a good starting point for our future poets!
The kids imagination and vocabulary will truly develop by writing their own poem, about a strong and powerful girl, and by drawing what she looks like!
The pencils we received from the crate are colorful and were already sharpened.
The string locks and holds the journal together. The pages are full, but she didn’t want to share her poems online. She loved this activity, which kept her busy for hours.
The second hands-on activity is about making a bird mobile!
Here’s everything we need for the activity!
After reading the instructions thoroughly, my daughter started folding out the papers to make a bird. There’s also wishes inside the birds, which I was also forbidden to share (or even read!). She really got into this crate!
And after making several pieces, she started hanging them up.
It looks cute and ready to be hung! Everything looked good together, even though they’re made of different patterned papers. Diversity, it is!
Last but not the least hands-on activity is about making a rainbow friendship bracelet.
There are different instructions for each pattern, depending on how you would like your bracelet to look like.
There are 5 colored strings so if you want to make a multi-colored bracelet, you can do so!
She started twisting the strings to make a wonderful craft!
My daughter’s creation is so pretty! I love the color combination she chose! Very Wonder Woman!
It fits wonderfully in my daughter’s room!
Dr. Maya Angelou is truly an inspiration, not just for little girls but for grown-ups as well This month’s hands-on activities were all enjoyable, especially the poetry journal and the rainbow bracelet. Even the on-page activities in the booklet were a hit with my daughter too. Overall, we think Girls Can Crate is a fun and creative subscription that makes for a great family bonding experience. And that’s exactly why we are always looking forward to receiving it in the mail!
Do you enjoy Girls Can Crate as much as we do? What’s your favorite thing about this subscription?
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