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 RAINBOWS! 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!
All the contents are neatly packed and arranged inside the box.
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.
For this box, the story tells us how the rainbow appears in the sky and what it needs to appear, like rain and sunshine!
On-page activities usually include tracing, matching, and word recognition games.
Before starting with the activities, my kids enjoyed the story in the magazine first.
Another suggested activity is about making your own rainbow crayons! There are also book suggestions in the Koala Library, which includes Duckie’s Rainbow, My Color is Rainbow, and A Rainbow of My Own.
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 creative rainbow-themed activities.
This part of the booklet lists all the supplies, the 3 primary activities, the messiness level, and any grownup assistance needed. They even included some additional symbols denoting the developmental skills practiced in doing the activity, such as fine or gross motor skills.
Every activity states you all the required materials, engagement questions to ask your child, step by step procedures, and play ideas. Though most crafts are self-explanatory, they have helpful illustrations and clear instructions, so it’s hard to go wrong.
Everything in this month’s box!
Activity #1. Stained Glass Art. For the first activity, they provided a black frame, black shapes, rainbow squares, and clear sticky sheets. From home, we grabbed a pair of scissors and tape.
The first thing my kids did is turn the black frame over and get the black shapes.
There are lots of shapes provided! My kids got creative with forming the shapes to make up a beautiful scene. They didn’t peel the yellow backing yet, they finalized their intended design first.
When they’re already sure about the scene they wanted, they peeled off the yellow backing to reveal the sticky sheet, and put the shapes in place, one by one.
They also filled the spaces with rainbow squares. For this activity, take note that you should only use half of the provided rainbow squares as you will also need them for the second activity.
After filling the picture with rainbow squares, my kids covered it with the clear sticky sheet.
Here’s my kids’ finished stained glass art! You can place it in the window and see how light passes through it, or hold it up to a lamp or any light source!
The scene looks amazing and we can tape it on one of our glass windows.
The final image looks amazing! The kids really made use of the shapes to form the sun, some clouds, and trees! There are even a small house and a mountain!
Activity #2: Rainbow Tote Bag. The second activity is about turning a plain tote into a rainbow-colored one! For this activity, the box provided a tote bag, water dropper, cloud stickers, and rainbow squares. From home, we used a baking tray, cup, water, and scrap paper.
We soaked the tote first before laying it flat on a table covered with scraps so we can keep the mess and won’t stain the table.
Then, my kids placed the rainbow squares on top!
For the next step, they used the water in a cup and dropped water on each of them. They waited for the colors to stick to the bag and when the bag was dry, they took off the rainbow squares.
My son attached the cloud sticker on the colorful bag.
He added more clouds on the bag, putting the one with a smiling face at the center.
My son had so much fun getting creative with this activity!
We all love how the bag turned out! It’s so cute!
The colors stuck on the fabric really well!
This tote would make a nice storage bag for my kids’ toys or books!
Activity #3: Cloud Pillow. The last activity for this box is about making a fluffy cloud pillow with a beautiful rainbow design! The box provided 3 items for this activity: a cloud-shaped pillow, some fluff to fill it with, and some rainbow stickers!
My son started by peeling off the backing from the rainbow stickers. Then, he made a rainbow out of them following the color sequence: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet!
Afterward, he stuck the rainbow at the bottom center of the cloud pillow.
Together with my youngest, they filled the pillow with the fluff after!
They pushed the fluff further inside to fill all crannies and crevices!
My daughter loved the fluffy pillow!
It’s a beautiful craft that the kids can squish and hug!
This month’s activities are so fun and colorful!
The rainbow is definitely one of the most beautiful things that we can see in nature! Who wouldn’t be mesmerized by its colors? My kids definitely loved this crate this month, as they didn’t just learn about the rainbow, but they were also able to make crafts inspired by it! The activities also help in developing the kids’ gross and fine motor skills, and understanding cause and effect. The instructions are really easy to follow, and the kids enjoyed adding amazing colors to items like the tote and the stained glass art. My youngest daughter also loves the pillow, which she hugs all the time!
Have you tried KiwiCo’s Koala Crate? What did you think of this month’s theme?
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