Kiwi Crate Review & Coupon – EXPLORING STARS

Make the first comment!
We received this box for our review. Hello Subscription independently researches and reviews the best subscriptions and products. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.
Go to commentsNotification

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 EXPLORING STARS! 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 CrateKoala Crate, Atlas Crate, Cricket 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.

There’s a write-up about one of the brightest stars we can see here on Earth, it’s none other than the sun!

Here’s one of the suggested activities to further understand this month’s topic: making moonlight! Materials needed for this activity are styrofoam ball, pencil, and flashlight.

All the items inside the box!

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!

There’s a list of all the supplies they provided for the crafts. Each craft is also rated by messiness and parental involvement, so you can plan accordingly.

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 first activity from this crate is a Constellation Lantern. The booklet provided detailed and illustrated instructions, and lists all the items you’ll need to complete this project.

You’ll need the following to complete this cool lantern: lantern paper, star stickers, paper lantern frame, paper lantern end pieces, paper lantern insert, small clear stickers, foam donuts, lantern lights, and pipe cleaner.

My daughter started by sticking the stars on the lantern paper. She got inspiration from several constellations too.

She built the lantern along with the frame and inserts beforehand, so after making different star patterns on the lantern paper, all that she needed to do is to insert them on the ready-built frame.

Lastly, my son placed the lantern light inside and covered the top with the end piece.

Here’s my kids’ finished lantern! All that’s left to do is to test it out in the dark!

It works beautifully! The lantern shines bright, I think this will serve as good camp light or a night lamp.

My kids loved this project! They even turn off every light in the house just to see how the lantern shines bright!

The next activity they’ll test out is the Solar Spinner!

For this activity, you’ll need the following from the crate: starry gear, bolts, nuts, plastic tube, brads, large clear stickers, small wood gear, solar spinner base, large wood gear, solar spinner cover, sticky foam dots, capsule, sphere light, model Earth, Earth stickers, and model Moon.

The activity is divided into two parts. First is building the gears, and the second is completing the Solar Spinner.

When you are building a mechanism, you are actually engineering. It’s great that the booklet was also able to explain that!

And when you finally move your Solar Spinner, you were actually seeing Science!

First up, my kids built the gears by attaching each component to their specific places.

They’re busy placing the nuts and bolts on their designated places. After finishing the gears, they’re ready to assemble and complete the spinner.

Before placing the sphere light on the spinner, my daughter tried if it lights up and it did!

Now, we’re ready to roll this puppy up!

The gears make the earth rotate on its axis, and at the same time, revolve around the spherical light, which serves as the sun! And, the Moon rotates around the Earth!

This a good model to teach the kids how our planet moves around the sun and how it rotates on its axis.

This can also explain why there’s light during the day and darkness falls at night.

It’s SO cool!

Another activity in the booklet is creating constellations.

Extension Activities

Every Crate includes extension activities. For this crate, they included a recipe for solar oven s’mores. There’s also a Kiwi Quiz and instructions on how to send a letter to Steve!

Every Kiwi Crate provides fun and enjoyable activities for the kids. This month, we had a great time building the lantern. I love how my daughter was able to come up with such beautiful star patterns and how she took inspiration from constellations. The Spinner is also a good model. Now I can thoroughly explain to them how our planet moves in the solar system and why it’s bright during the day and dark at night! The kids loved the engineering part of the second activity too, it’s a great exercise for aspiring engineers and even scientists. This is really a good crate if you want to bond with the kids while they learn a bunch of stuff and have fun at the same time!

What do you think about Kiwi Crate?

Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box!

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *