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 MEDIEVAL FUN! 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.
One of KiwiCo’s goals is to equip the next generation of innovators with the tools and confidence for creative exploration and problem-solving.
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.
It also comes with fun on-page activities to keep them busy for a while.
My sons definitely enjoyed the activities in the magazine. The style of the magazine looks so appealing even for pre-readers.
This magazine is really a fun read, it stimulates my children’s mind and simply is one of the best items you can get inside the crate.
Koala Crate Crafts
The instruction booklet is intended for the adult helper and gives detailed instructions for the activity.
The back of the booklet encourages you to visit their website for more DIY medieval-themed activities.
It lists all the supplies, the 3 primary activities, the messiness level, and any grownup assistance needed. They’ve recently added some additional symbols denoting the developmental skills practiced in doing the activity, such as fine or gross motor skills.
Every activity tells you the required materials, engagement questions to ask your child, step by step instructions, and play ideas. Though most crafts are self-explanatory, they have helpful illustrations and clear instructions, so it’s hard to go wrong.
Everything this month’s box!
Activity #1: Medieval Castle. For the first activity, we’re making a castle. The crate provides everything, including the castle pieces and some character pieces.
To keep your castle sturdy, make sure each and every piece is properly installed, especially the bases. Each wall comes with a slight cut on the edges, so you can easily slide and connect each other.
When you’re done building the castle, it’s time to put the character pieces around!
Activity #2: Catapult. For the second activity, we’re making a catapult! The crate provided us with materials like the catapult body, elastic, clothespin, large foam buttons, catapult stick, sticky foam tab, cap, sticky foam dot, and pom-poms.
The instruction manual was so detailed, it made everything a lot easier. On this part of the project, my son is installing the beam of the catapult by sliding the foam end of it and letting it stick through the clothespin slot.
Here’s how the catapult should look like once done!
We are provided a variety of pom-pom sizes in which we can launch them and see how high they can fly.
Make sure that the elastic is locked in before releasing the launch pad to make sure that you’ll get the best firepower.
To use, simply place a pom-pom in the cap and press the end of the stick down. Release it and see how the pom-pom flies!
Activity #3: Dragon Wagon. It’s time to make a dragon wagon! For this project, the crate provided a dragon box, dragon head, paper dots, wood wheels, wood sticks, string, paper strips, and small foam buttons.
My kids started by peeling off the paper backing on the sides of the dragon box.
Once all the sides are peeled off, they placed the dots on the light green sticky segment of the box to create the dragon scales.
Make sure to cover up all the sticky area on every side to have an adorable and glaring dragon scale.
After putting all the scales on the sticky area, they added the wood wheel on the bottom part of the box and carefully installed the head of the dragon.
We added some paper strips on the mouth to make it look like a fire-breathing dragon wagon!
Thread the other end of the string through the two holes at the front and tie a knot to secure it.
This wagon is quite big, you can easily place the catapult on it and carry it around!
The castle, catapult, and wagon are all done! My kids did such a great job!
Koala Crate Extension Activities
Another suggested activity from the booklet is making pipe cleaner crown! For this, you can use items from your home, such as pipe cleaners, beads, and scissors. There are also book suggestions in the Koala Library, which includes The Storybook Knight, The Princess and the Wizard, and Dragons Love Tacos!
This medieval-themed Koala Crate included fun activities that kept my kids busy and entertained for a while. This subscription is great for preschoolers, as it relies heavily on shape, color, pattern recognition and other pre-reading skills. All of the boxes in the KiwiCo family are excellent parent, babysitter or grandparent activity boxes, perfect for adding some structure and fun to quality time with the kids, without any pre-planning hassle. My younger son sometimes asks for help figuring out what to do, but he can actually do most of the activities without any assistance. My other son has transitioned to the older boxes, but he really still enjoys the activities in Koala Crate and can’t resist jumping in to help!
Have you tried KiwiCo’s Koala Crate? What did you think of this month’s theme?
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