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!
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first box of Kiwi Crate! (or KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate, Koala Crate, Atlas Crate, Cricket Crate, and Doodle Crate).
This month’s theme is MUSIC MACHINES!
Kiwi Crate includes all necessary supplies for the featured activities, plus explore! magazine.
Engineer a mechanical drum set that comes to life with the simple turn of a crank, then customize it to experiment with all sorts of different rhythms.
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.
Tinker, Create, Innovate
KiwiCo equips the next generation of innovators with the tools and confidence for creative exploration and problem solving.
There is always a comic featuring Steve the Kiwi and his pals.
This magazine also includes a lot of historical and scientific information relating to the current theme, The Science of Sound!
This month’s featured activity is Music Machines, a mechanism/instrument that produces sound waves to make music.
This article is all about how music is made.
Musical instruments come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common: They make air wiggle and vibrate, and that’s how they make music.
Another feature is about the “ingredients” needed in making music. Apparently, music is made up of two main parts: the rhythm and pitch.
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!
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 booklet contains a list of all the supplies they provided for the crafts. It also has a rating of messiness and parental involvement for each activity.
Here are all the items we need for this month’s Music Machines!
For our first experiment, we are creating a One-string Guitar! This booklet provides detailed instruction and some illustrations to help you finish the project.
They also provided some useful tips and suggestions to finish the project with ease!
For this project we used the song sheet, elastic, wood sticker, flap, small round dowel, paper stickers, handle, and music guide.
The kids started by peeling the back of the wood sticker and sticking it on the light green area of the flap.
Next step is to bend the tabs up and place the green flap in the right side of the box. Then, close the lid so the flap sticks out.
Place the handle inside of the green flap and line up the holes. Slowly slide the small round dowel through the holes in the green flap and the handles. Then, poke the elastic through the hole on the other end of the handle.
Once done, slide the music guide onto the dowel, behind the handle. It serves as the measuring guide for your one-string guitar. Lastly, pluck the elastic to make a sound!
The next project is creating a Beatbox Machine, a drum set that makes music when you turn a crank.
It’s a pretty complex project that is divided into 3 different parts.
The first part is the preparations of wheels and levers, while the second is the building of the beatbox frame, and the third is the addition of drums.
According to the booklet, at the end of this project, you should be hearing a clank, rattle, and thump everytime the pegs hit the drums of the beatbox machine.
The preparation of wheels and levers includes foam wheels, numbered wheel covers, blank wheel covers, thin gray foam, brads, levers, and double-sided sticky foam.
First, the kids sandwiched the foam wheel between the blank and numbered wheel cover. Make sure that the numbers are facing the right way!
Carefully stick a double-sided sticky foam piece on either side of the lines on a lever and line up a thin gray foam piece on top of the sticky foam and stick it down. Repeat the process on the remaining two levers.
Once done with the building of the beatbox frame, connect the wheels to it by poking the long dowel at the middle hole of the wheel.
Carefully slide each wheel on the square dowels. Leave some space in between the wheels.
Then, place the square dowel on top of the beatbox frame and lock it using the rubber rings.
For the third part of the project, which is the addition of drums, we used the base, thin orange foams, square and round dowels, wood stands, wood bars, crank, nuts, screw, and green straws.
We also used pegs, metal rings, metal drum, big and small drums, thin orange, rubber band, and double-sided sticky foam.
Stick the levers on the round dowels and separate it using the straws while aligning it together with the wheel.
Once done with the aligning, lock the dowels using the rubber band.
For the final touch, carefully put the pegs in between the wheel. These pegs work as the trigger for the lever to move.
Spin the wheel and let the peg move the levers and tap each drum to produce a sound.
The first drum to the left is the metal drum, followed by the small drum with metal rings, and the big drum.
Here’s our complete set of Music Machines! It features the sound of cymbals, snare drums, and bass drums.
It’s so simple to play with, just spin the wheels and let the music play!
According to the booklet, you can adjust the pattern of the pegs and turn the crank to hear a variety of rhythm.
What I love about this subscription is that they anticipate where the most difficult part is, and they also provide some tips you can test and try to correct it.
This month’s box also included a song sheet you could use to play your one-string guitar. Rain, Rain, Go Away song and tried the Mary had a Little Lamb song too!
How to play:
- To play your one-string guitar, check out pages 16-17 in your instruction booklet.
- Then, match the colored notes below to play a song! Don’t forget to pause for a rest when you get to a white space.
Extension Activities
Every Crate includes extension activities. This month it’s called Dancing Rice, which uses rice, plastic wrap, and a pot to “see” sound. An on-page activity involves finding musical instruments in the illustration.
The booklet even introduced Jazzy Juice, a drinkable xylophone you can easily make at home! The other page also features a quiz, and they also encourage your kids to email a letter or picture to Steve, and if it is published, they’ll be sending you a plush kiwi.
Kiwi Crate captivated us with another fun and exciting project! My kids had such a wonderful time assembling the One-String Guitar and the Beatbox machine, especially the latter one as they worked very hard on it. The box provides almost everything we needed to complete the project, making the project much faster and easier. The Explore magazine was as impressive as always, the instructions are so detailed and informative. It’s definitely the perfect box for fun and learning!
Did you enjoy this month’s activity? Let us know in the comments!
Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box!
Comments