Koala Crate is a KiwiCo subscription created for kids ages 2 to 4. This educational subscription promotes hands-on learning by sending materials good for 2-3 creative activities. The activities are designed to be developmentally appropriate and enriching while also keeping it engaging, fun, and universally appealing. Each box will also include a Parent Guide, helping moms and dads to support their kids’ inquiry-based learning, and a copy of imagine! magazine that extends learning with engaging stories and games. Each box is $19.95 per month.
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 PLAYGROUND! 
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 is set in a playground, and features all sorts of things you can see in that place!
Aside from the fun story, the magazine encourages kids to turn on some tunes, pretend that they’re at the park, and try some playground-inspired dance moves!
My kids are enjoying the story so much!
On-page activities usually include tracing, matching, and word recognition games.
They also included another activity where the kids can make their own jump ropes! There are also book suggestions in the Koala Library, which includes The Seesaw by Judith Koppens, Playground by Miles Van Hout, and Just a Little Bit by Ann Tompert.
Koala Crate Crafts
The instruction booklet is intended for the adult helper and gives detailed instructions for the activity.
There’s also another promotional card for KiwiCo!
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: Balancing Seesaw. The first activity is about making a balancing seesaw. The materials included in the box are seesaw board, seesaw bases, pegs, large foam buttons, small foam buttons, beads, wiggle eyes, and felt stickers.
They also gave us ideas for play when we’re done with the craft!
The first thing to do is to add the seesaw base to each side of the board by sticking the tabs through the holes. To hold the bases in place, a small foam button is needed.
My son slid a large foam button on one of the pegs.
He did the same to the other end.
They also decorated the beads by adding wiggle eyes and stickers.
The next thing to do is to balance the seesaw with the bead animals!
They tried fewer beads on the other side, then transferred the other beads to the other end along with a different bead. They really had fun looking at how the seesaw works!
Activity #2: Basketball Toss. For the second activity, the box included tubing, backboard, brace, pegs, inflatable ball, and suction cups.
After completing this one, you can play alone, or tag a friend to play with you, and see who scores more!
The first thing to do is to unfold the backboard, then line up the holes in the brace with the bottom holes of the backboard. Then push a peg through each hole and flip the board over and make the hoop by pushing the ends of the tubing on to the pegs.
Next, add the suction cup to each hole at the top of the board. These cups will make it easy for the board to stick to glass windows or doors.
Now, we’re ready to do some hoops! To make it more challenging, we placed the board on a higher part of the window.
For my daughter, we lowered it so she can also do some hoops! My kids really enjoyed playing with it!
Activity #3: Indoor Playground. For the third activity, we have tapes, activity cards, action cards, and an inflatable ball from the box.
The booklet also explains each activity card.
There are 4 activity cards: spiderweb course, maze course, long jump, and follow the path.
The back of each card has the setup, and instructions on how to play them.
Here are the 6 action cards: tiptoe, spin, walk backwards, jump, dance, and roll.
The flip side shows adorable illustrations of the actions.
Here are two of the activity cards, and the kids just need to draw an action card to know what actions they’re going to do to finish the task.
They first used the tapes to make fun paths.
This one is a zigzag path!
They used both the tapes to make the fun pattern.
They also made this maze using the tapes.
On this part, they have to push the ball and find a way out of the maze! It’s really fun!
Staying home is as fun as going out to play at the park with this month’s crate! The crate included activities and materials that enabled us to enjoy outdoor activities at the comforts of our home. Aside from developing the kids’ creative skills by making crafts, the activities also develop their social skills by learning and having fun together! The crate provided all the materials needed, so we can start right away. The instructions are really easy to follow and the kids just needed minimal supervision in doing the activities. Our indoor playground turned out to be a blast!
Have you tried KiwiCo’s Koala Crate? What did you think of this month’s theme?
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