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 Mirror Illusions! 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).
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.
They also include lots of historical and scientific information relating to the current theme.
More science features! There’s even a Mirror word search that my daughter started working on!
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!
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.
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.
There’s also a list of all the supplies they provided for the crafts.
Each activity comes with easy to follow instructions. First, we’ll do the trick box!
Here’s everything that you need to make this box: the box (of course!), box inserts, and a trick box mirror. You can provide other materials that are needed like coins, buttons, or small candies.
The kids started to assemble the trick box by folding the box up and putting the inserts inside.
The arrows and stripes serve as guides when doing this trick box. Make sure that these guides on the insert face are on the same way as what’s inside the box…
And we’re ready for some tricks! There’s Steve the Kiwi (he’s reflected with a 45 degree mirror – the actual image is on the bottom). You can try other tricks with this like inserting a coin and looking through the side – it magically shows nothing!
The next activity is doing a painted puzzle.
Everything that you need to make this cute puzzle is provided by the crate, you just need to find some scrap papers to cover your work surface because this activity is quite messy.
The kids started painting the blank wood puzzle. They used the stampers to get paints from the pots and transfer the colors to the wood puzzle. We absolutely loved the stampers, and then we used the extra paint to just do a fun picture.
They also had to choose a sticker to make the puzzle piece, and they chose the smiley one! After painting and peeling off the sticker, they gave it a try and solved it. But this is not the challenge!
For the last activity from this crate, we’re making mirror goggles!
This one is jam-packed as it contains a lot of items: goggles, padding foam, elastic strap, cord stoppers, goggle mirror, sticky foam dots, brads, fabric strip, bead, sticky foam donut, clear stickers, etched wood puzzle, or you can use the painted puzzle from the previous activity.
After setting this cool equipment up, the kids tested it using the etched puzzle.
Here’s how the goggles looked on the inside – you see the puzzle right side up, but the puzzle gets formed upside down on the table. If you can imagine what your brain and hands feel like doing this.. it’s crazy!
The kids really had fun solving the puzzle with the mirror goggles!
This isn’t for kids only! Even adults can have fun with this tool!
We’ll also try to solve other puzzles with the use of the cool goggles, like writing our names! Tom couldn’t even get 3 letters out! Our daughter did pretty great after her second try.
Extension Activities
Here’s another suggested on-page activity where you need to follow the map in two ways and see where you’ll end up!
You can also have fun with mirror secret messages. Just always keep a mirror handy to decode them!
The booklet even introduced a fun recipe for Tic-Tac-Yum! There are also book suggestions related to this month’s theme, which include Light: Shadows, Mirror and Rainbows and Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems. (I knew this book looked familiar – We have Echo, Echo checked out of the library!)
It’s another awesome crate from Kiwi Crate and my kids enjoyed learning a lot about how mirrors work. The hands-on activities are all fun and engaging. Aside from science experiments, there are even recipes and creative activities. It makes the subscription so well-rounded, and the fact that it appeals not just to the intended age bracket (5-8 years old) but to all age ranges make it such a winner. If you’re looking for an activity box that will keep kids busy for hours, and teach them some science and history, you should try Kiwi Crate!
Did you enjoy this months activity? Let us know in the comments!
Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box!
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