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 MOROCCO!
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!
Salam is a Moroccan word which means “Hello” or “Peace” in Arabic!
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 also a list of all six tasks we need to accomplish in this crate.
Also included is the Atlas Quest that you’ll need to fill out after exploring Morocco, then put together the special letters to find the answer!
You can explore more online after you get your box with additional activities and book suggestions! Atlas Crate recommends The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta and The Storyteller.
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, Morocco. The sticker features the beautiful Moroccan Lanterns!
We placed the sticker on 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 Morocco’s notable events, sports, places, or products from that particular location.
We’re really excited to explore this beautiful country!
Atlas Crate Activities
These pages feature the beginning of the adventures of Anya and Milo in Morocco.
One of the most popular places in the African continent, the Sahara desert is our friends’ first stop. The Sahara desert is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third-largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic.
All the senses are alive when it comes to the Moroccan Souks. Souks are traditional markets where you can find almost anything and everything under the sun, especially the prided Moroccan Lanterns.
Morocco is also famous for the colorful tiles that decorate many of their beautiful architectures. The patterns are really beautiful and colorful, and they can even make mosaic tilework called the Zellige.
Atlas Crate Recipe
This month’s recipe is for Morocco’s national dish, the Couscous.
They included complete instructions on how to do this delicious recipe. You’ll need orange juice, olive oil, couscous, ground coriander, and salt. You can also add raisins, fresh parsley, toasted almond slivers, orange or tangerines for added texture and taste.
The couscous is really easy to prepare as we only need to heat up the orange juice then add the olive oil in it. The mixture is used to fluff up or cook the couscous for several minutes, then season with salt and add the ground coriander. As recommended, we’re going to add all the optional add-ons on the dish!
The couscous is beautifully placed on the bowl, topped with all the add-ons. We’re really excited to dig in and have a taste of Morocco! This was an unusual way of preparing couscous for us – with the juice and lots and lots of olive oil, but we loved it!
My son loves it and my aunt was fascinated by the booklets! I am really happy that the kids are always ready to taste different dishes from different places! It’s one of the best ways to introduce them to a certain place or practice as well!
Atlas Crate Projects
For this month’s Atlas Crate projects, we’re making a Moroccan Lantern and play Ronda!
Activity #1: Make Your Own Moroccan Lantern. For this activity, the crate provided us with the lantern frame, colored panels, reflective stickers, brads, sticky foams, sticker shapes, hanging light, and some elastics.
Included in the sheet are steps on how to make the lantern, which consists of 3 parts: decorating the panels, forming the lantern, and lighting it up!
They’re all well-detailed and easy to understand.
Lighting it up is the most interesting and exciting part of making the lantern!
They even shared fun facts about the Moroccan lanterns!
You can find Moroccan lanterns in all kinds of shapes, like cones, globes, cylinders, and even stars.
Traditional lanterns are examples of handmade Moroccan metalwork — an art form often passed down through families. Some lanterns are made out of a single sheet of metal!
Throughout history, most Moroccan lanterns have been candle-powered, but these days many of them are wired for electricity.
My daughter decorated the lantern frame with the colored panels.
After sticking all the panels along with the sticker shapes, it’s time to form the lantern!
The hanging light is placed inside.
We tried to see how the lantern looks like in the dark by turning off our main lights. The addition of the sticker shapes makes the lantern look more gorgeous in the dark!
We also hung the lantern and decided to display it that way, it’s such an amazing decor to look at even in the dark!
Activity #2: Play Ronda. Ronda is a card game in Morocco that is played with the 40-card Spanish pack and the objective is to capture cards from the table by playing matching cards from hand.
The box provided the complete deck of cards and some tokens to get us started.
There’s a leaflet that contains all the rules of the game.
Here are the tokens to be used in the game!
The deck has a total of 40 cards, and the cards feature Anya and Milo!
The project also comes with directions on how to play a fancier version of the game.
My kids checked the deck and the instructions on how to play the game.
They looked really serious in playing, both determined to outwit the other and win! We love this gameschooling approach to the world!
This month’s box proved how beautiful the country of Morocco is! From the famous lanterns, tiles, and their souks, the kids had fun in exploring the country and learning more about their culture through their famous places, practices, and food. Their national food, the couscous, is really a delightful treat. We also understand why the Moroccan lanterns are popular, the designs and make of these symbolic items are really incredible. Ronda is also an interesting card game, my kids are really taking it seriously to win the game, and they even want to try the fancier version!
What do you think of KiwiCo’s Atlas Crate?
Comments
How do I get a replacement bulb for the Moroccan lantern project? The one we got in our box last month was broken.