Atlas Crate is a monthly subscription from KiwiCo that specializes in geography and culture for children between ages 6 to 11 years old. This box is designed to spark kids’ sense of adventure and curiosity, inspiring them to see themselves as citizens of the world. Kids can see and connect with the rest of the world, helping them grow beyond their own experience as they explore the globe.
KiwiCo also offers Kiwi Crate, Koala Crate, Doodle Crate, Tinker Crate, Tadpole Crate, and Eureka Crate. Atlas Crate is a great addition to the KiwiCo family as geography and exploration is always a favorite activity!
DEAL: Save 30% on your first month with this link on any KiwiCo line, no coupon code required!
This month’s box is all about BRAZIL!
Upon opening, we are welcomed by the cards and pamphlets that are essential to the activities. This subscription emphasizes learning through creative play as they provide in this box everything the kids might need. It builds a sense of adventure, an appreciation of other cultures, builds a sense of global citizenship and opportunity for parents and grandparents to bond with children.
Everything in the crate!
Olá! is a Brazilian word which means Hello!
Every flap of the envelope has information about the box. We are also given a beautiful surprise of trivia cards filled with fascinating facts and photos.
We are also introduced to Anya the cricket and Milo the sandpiper.
Here’s a list of all six tasks we need to accomplish in this crate.
You can explore more online after you get your box with additional activities and book suggestions! Atlas Crate recommends Amazon Diary: The Jungle Adventures of Alex Winters and Steve Goes To Carnival.
Atlas Crate Adventure Book
Missed our first review? You’ll get the rings in your first box, which will always start with the WORLD crate. Check out that review here!
We got a sticker that represents this month’s featured country, Brazil. The sticker features the most famous sports played in this country, which is football.
We will be placing the sticker on the front page of the Adventure Book, along with the other countries that we already explored!
The table of contents is on the edge of the page for easy reading, just like how a travel book works.
It’s a cute illustration of the country map with fast facts and where they have images drawn of Brazil’s notable events, sports, places, or products from that particular location.
Atlas Crate Activities
These pages feature the beginning of the adventures of Anya and Milo in Brazil.
One of their first stops is Iguaçu Falls, located on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. It’s considered to be the largest waterfall system in the world.
This booklet features the beauty of Brazil’s rainforests and geological structure. Brazil’s rainforests are considered to be one of the healthiest ecological places where thousands of species of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish thrive.
The booklet even featured animals living in Brazil’s rainforests, which include toucans, jaguars, golden lion tamarin, capybara, and piranha. Featured on the other side of the booklet is the most famous holiday in Brazil, The Carnaval.
Atlas Crate Recipe
This month’s recipe is for Brigadeiros, a traditional Brazilian dessert.
They included complete instructions on how to do this delicious pastry recipe. You’ll need condensed milk, unsweetened cocoa, water, butter, and chocolate or rainbow sprinkles.
We prepared various kinds of sprinkles for our own version of brigadeiros!
My kids started off by greasing the platter using half of the butter. This process is done to make sure that the mixture won’t stick to the plate.
Then, place the cocoa powder in a small bowl, pour in some water, and mix it until the cocoa dissolves.
Once you made sure that the powder is dissolved, add the condensed milk and the remaining of the butter. Then, cook it over medium-low heat.
Keep stirring it for around 15-20 minutes or until the mixture thickens and start to look more like a brownie batter.
Transfer the chocolate mixture and spread it evenly on the buttered platter and let it cool to room temperature. You can speed up the cooling process by simply putting it inside your fridge.
After you made sure that the mixture is cooled, it’s time to put some grease on your hands with a little butter! Then, scoop some of the chocolate and then roll it on your palm to form a chocolate ball.
Roll these chocolate balls on your desired sprinkles until it is fully covered.
There we have our colorful brigadeiros. These chocolates are best served chilled!
Atlas Crate Projects
For this month’s Atlas Crate projects, we’re making a Three-Toed Sloth and Table Soccer Game!
Activity No. 1: Three-Toed Sloth. For this activity, the crate provided us the felt body pieces, felt limbs, thin yarn, thick yarn, fluff, leaves, and scratchy dots.
The average sloth travels just 41 yards per day. That’s less than half the length of a football field!
Included in the instruction sheet are steps on how to make the sloth itself, plus the rainforest vine. They’re all well-detailed and easy to understand.
The first step is to stack the two body pieces together with the blank side facing each other. Then, put the limbs on their rightful places and carefully stitch them using the thin yarn. In between the process, put some fluffs in the sloth’s tummy and head. Once it is stuffed, continue stitching the rest of the sloth.
The next step to make is a rainforest vine that involves a thick yarn and a variety of leaves.
This part of the project is simple and easy, all you need to do is to thread the thick yarn through the leaves and put the sloth on the vine. Place it somewhere it can hang, to make your sloth feel at home.
Here are more fun facts about the sloths!
Activity No. 2: Table Soccer Game. For the second activity, the crate provided us with stadium pieces, field, brown sticky foam, and white sticky foam.
Aside from the instruction manual to build the stadium, the booklet also provided us with the proper way of playing this game.
As always, the project also comes with some fun facts about football.
Every four years, teams all over the world try to qualify for the World Cup soccer tournament. And only the best teams get to participate. Can you guess which country is the only one to compete in every World Cup ever? It’s Brazil!
This project comes in 3 stages, the first one is the building of the stadium, then the goals and scoreboards, and lastly the addition of teams.
Building the stadium is quite simple: put the things together, and make sure that every piece is locked properly.
Arrange the team accordingly and cover the light area on the back of each soccer player with a piece of sticky foam, then stick the flat side of a clip to the foam.
Add the clips to the rest of the players and then gently slide it to the sticks and press it all the way down. Do the same way with the opposing team.
Drop the ball in the field to test out if there are areas in the field where no player can reach, so it can be adjusted properly.
Like the real football game, the objective is to push the ball to the opponent’s goal. The person to have the highest goal within the given time wins the match.
Yup, the game is pretty hard to play and the ball is quite hard to control yet the game is truly enjoyable. My kids loved it so much!
This month’s Atlas Crate brought us to another wonderful and exciting place, Brazil! My kids loved everything about this crate, from the booklet itself, the recipes, trivia, and the projects which has a great connection with the featured country. They’ve learned a lot of interesting things about Brazil, like Samba and football. They even featured some amusing animals that can be found on Brazil’s rainforests. Do you know what makes the little football game more interesting? It is when you award the winner of the match a piece of your homemade brigadeiros!
What do you think of KiwiCo’s Atlas Crate?
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