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 Spinning Science! 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).
All of the craft supplies from the 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.
Explore! Magazine
An issue of explore magazine is included in every Crate. It is full of fun content that brings the project to life. explore! has read, draw, learn, explore, eat, and make designated activities. 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. 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.
There is always a comic featuring Steve the Kiwi and his pals, plus lots of historical and scientific information relating to the current theme.
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.
Kiwi Crate Crafts
The second booklet that comes in every crate is the actual instruction booklet for the crafts, and it often 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. This Crate had three distinct projects. The booklet includes an inventory of all the supplies included in the Crate, plus a messiness and parental involvement rating for each project.
Our first project this month is about building our stackable tops. 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.
Stackable Tops. Stems and discs, as well as the spacers and rubber rings, are all included in the crate.
It’s a child-friendly way of introducing the basics of Engineering. There are other designs to follow, like The Cake Walk and The Saucer.
Pom-pom Fling and Point Walk. Of course, the fun and learning don’t stop at making the tops. We also need to play games and Kiwi Crate already has it laid out for us!
The crate provided the game board, pom poms, top pieces, and completed game frame. For Pom-Pom Flings, all you have to do is to place the frame on the green side of the game board and pile the pom poms on the center. The goal is to fling all the pom-poms out of the frame.
For Point Walk, just put the frame on the blue side of the board and spin the top in the circle that says START. The player will get one point every time the top travels through a circle. Of course, the player with the most points win!
Penny Top. The next activity involves a bit of Physics!
First we need to create a Penny Top, which is composed of a round blue stem and a penny disk from the crate plus pennies from home. You just have to put the pennies on the slots, and you can let your kids decide how many or how few they want to put.
Give it a good spin and use a watch or a timer to measure how long the top spins. You can keep on experimenting until you find the best penny arrangement that lets your top spin the longest!
Drawing Top Art. Drawing using a top? That sounds really fun!
You can reuse the game frame for this activity. The drawing top, markers, blank paper circles, and clear stickers are all included in the crate. All you need from home are scrap paper.
We put a blank paper circle over the frame and secured it with the stickers. The kids also chose their preferred marker color, and then put it on the drawing top.
Now, you can spin the top inside the frame and the see how it draws spirals. When you want to redo your top art, just replace the sheet.
Blow Top. You just need two things for this experiment, a blow top and a blue straw, and both are provided in the crate. 
Put the blow top on any flat surface, and then blow on it using the straw to make it spin.
Extension Activities
Aside from the tops provided in the crate, the booklet is encouraging kids to find other things or toys that they can spin! It can be as simple as a quarter, or a top made with toothpick and paper.
How about turning yourself into a top? This activity needs adult supervision, as the kids will need to sit on an office chair and spin while sitting on it with their arms stretched out. Other suggestions include a fidget spinner and an egg! You can guess if an egg is raw or cooked just by spinning it. Raw eggs spin more slowly than boiled eggs!
Emoji Teetotum Game. Using empty half-pint cartons and craft sticks, you can create an emoji top and play a game where each emoji corresponds to an action.
The booklet even introduced a recipe for apple pop tops. There are also book suggestions related to this month’s theme, which include Junk Drawer Engineering and A Crash Course in Forces and Motion with Max Axiom, Super Scientist.
My kids were able to make different kinds of tops from this month’s Kiwi Crate and learn new things about Engineering and Physics. There were also activities that helped the kids unleash their creativity – this is such a well-rounded box. The subscription is intended for kids ages 5-8 years old, but it is not limited to that age bracket. Even adults can have with it too. Another thing we love about this subscription is that almost everything we need for the activities is provided, plus there are detailed procedures. If you’re looking for an activity box that will help you introduce some science, history, and other lessons to the kids, Kiwi Crate is definitely the subscription box you need.
Did you enjoy this month’s activity? Let us know in the comments!
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