Koala Crate is a monthly subscription box from KiwiCo for preschoolers ages 3 to 5. It is educational and always hands-on. The activities are designed to be developmentally appropriate and enriching while also keeping it engaging, fun, and universally appealing.
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first month of Koala Crate! (or any of the KiwiCo family subscriptions – use this page to find the best box for your little one!).
This month’s Koala Crate theme is REPTILES! As always, the box comes with all the supplies needed to create a trio of fun, age-appropriate crafts — plus it has a magazine with extra games and activities!
There are two books that will come in your Koala Crate. imagine! magazine is “a play and learn magazine” made for you and your preschooler to explore together. My son loves it! I like that the instruction booklet is separate from the magazine, so you can preview the activity while your child works on the activities in the booklet.
Imagine! Magazine
Imagine! magazine contains information relevant to the theme so your child learns a bit about the topic while having fun with the craft and play activities. The information is provided in an age-appropriate format and always feels like a game, not schoolwork.
A fun story introduces your child to the theme of the box. The same group of friendly characters is featured each month, and the familiar faces encourage engagement.
The good mix of drawings and information will surely catch the kids attention and get them interested in learning more about different kind of reptiles.
The illustrations are animated and engaging. They relate their games to the theme and makes it so exciting for the kids.
Koala Crate Crafts
The instruction booklet is intended for the adult helper and gives detailed instructions for the activity.
It lists all the supplies, the 3 primary activities, the messiness level, and any grownup assistance needed. They have also include symbols denoting the developmental skills practiced in doing the activity, such as fine or gross motor skills, creativity, etc.
For this Crate, we are making a Stuffed Snake Friend, a Color Changing Chameleon, and a Turtle Box.
Everything this month’s box!
Stuffed Snake Friend. Here are all the items we need for our first project: fleece snake body, fluff, felt eye stickers, party horn, and hexagon-shaped felt stickers.
To start, open the fold ends of the snake’s body and carefully put the cotton inside.
Make sure that the snake’s body is full. You can use something like a pencil, ballpen, or the party horn provided in the crate, to push the fluff into the body of the snake toy.
In this part of the project, my son slit the horn underneath the snake’s head. Now, he can blow the party horn to unfurl the tongue.
Using the hexagon sticker, you can create a unique scale pattern to design your stuffed snake friend.
Turtle Box. For the turtle box, the crate provided us with a carton box, turtle-shaped felt, hexagon stickers, wiggle eyes, and sticky dots.
My son started the project by putting the hexagon felt paper on the carton, creating a pattern same as a turtle’s shell.
Once done with the carton, peel the back of the felt turtle, stick it to the carton and press it firmly. Finish it off by sticking the wiggling eyes on the turtle’s head and attach the sticky dots on the other side of the turtle’s head and feet.
Color Changing Chameleon. For this project, the crate provided wiggle eyes, bug stand pieces, and a party horn.
Color changing chameleon is the simplest among the three projects this month. Just put on the wiggle eyes on the chameleon and you’re done! The chameleon changes color with your body heat, too!
Once done with the chameleon, it’s time to create the bug stand! Pop out each bug stand from the container, then slide the bases onto each stand.
Like on the Stuffed Snake Friend project, you can blow the party horn to make the chameleon stick out its tongue.
We set-up the bug stands on the table and, using the chameleon, the kids blew the party horn to knock down all the bug stands.
Koala Crate Extension Activities
Another suggested activity from the booklet is the Slithering Snake. For this, you can use items from your home, such as pipe cleaners or shoelaces, beads, and wiggle eyes. There are also book suggestions in the Koala Library, which includes A Color of His Own, Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite, and Turtle Splash!: Countdown to the Pond.
Koala Crate never ceases to amaze my kids. The hands-on projects are always fun and engaging, and the booklet is jampacked with on-page activities and new learnings. This month’s box is all about reptiles, so aside from helping them develop their creative skills, it also taught them some science lessons and interesting trivia about reptiles. If you have a pre-schooler, or kids who love to do activities as a past time, this is a subscription worth trying!
Have you tried Koala Crate? What did you think of this month’s theme?
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