Girls Can Crate is a monthly subscription for children between 5 and 10 years of age that promotes the idea that girls can do whatever they set their minds to. Each month features a different female pioneer whose story inspires girls to achieve. Each box includes a 20-page activity book that includes the heroine’s story, 2-3 STEAM activities, and creative play props. Boxes cost $29.95 each month with themes that celebrate female pioneers from diverse backgrounds, but the activities themselves are usually gender-neutral.
DEAL: Save 15% on your first box! Use coupon code HELLO15.
The box is always full of fun stuff and activities.
The items were cushioned with bright yellow squiggles.
There’s a pamphlet that lists what’s inside the crate. This month, we’re celebrating the life of Marie Curie!
Meanwhile, these are pointers for parents on how to help kids become confident.
Everything in the box!
As always, the box included a booklet featuring information about this month’s heroine.
At the back of the booklet is a quote from this month’s heroine:
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perserverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
They also indicated that a portion of the proceeds from every GIRLS CAN! Crate sale helps support non-profit organizations working to empower girls.
Marie Skłodowska Curie, or simply known as Marie Curie, was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted the pioneering research on radioactivity.
What made Marie and her marriage unique is that she continued her work as a scientist even after she got married, unlike most women who stopped working after they got married. Aside from her doctoral degree, her other achievements include the development of the theory of radioactivity (a term she, herself, coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium, and radium.
Even though she has discovered a lot herself, she also became fascinated by the work of French physicist, Henri Becquerel, who discovered the element uranium gave off rays and the work of William Roentgen, a German physicist who discovered X-rays.
Using another element called pitchblende, Marie discovered more a lot more rays from the uranium!
Marie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. Adding to her achievements, she was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995, the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
The booklet also gave us more information about other inspiring women in Science, like Mildred Cohn, and Paula Hammond. There’s an activity on the next page where you will use the letters inspired by the elements of the periodic table to complete the sentences.
There are lots of fun activities in the booklet like connect-the-dots and an ice fishing challenge!
There’s also a beaker maze, and the same page teaches us the importance of chemistry! The next page is all about X-rays and you’ll need to match images!
My daughter started with the activities right away!
There’s even a matching activity, andn it teaches kids about the skeletal system. The next page has 2 images and all you need to do is to spot the differences.
This month’s pin, of course, features the confident chemist and Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie!
Activity #1: Water Chemistry. Just like Marie, this crate encourages kids to become confident chemists! The first activity is about turning liquid water into edible semi-solid balls!
For this experiment, we used the following: jar, marble, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, juice, pipette, strainer, and 2 bowls. At home, we used microwave-safe bowls, a spoon, and water.
My daughter made solutions A (sodium alginate solution) and B (calcium lactate solution) first. Solution A requires heating and the use of sodium alginate, water, jar, marble, and microwave-safe bowl. For solution B, while waiting for solution A to cool down, she mixed the calcium lactate with water. When solution A is cooled, she then added juice powder to it and mixed it well.
My daughter placed drops of solution A to B using the pipette.
There are small balls formed! They look so cute!
Then we strained all the little balls using the strainer.
After straining the balls, we filled a cup with cool water and dipped the strainer with the balls in it. It stops the reaction, and then we lift it up again to remove the balls from the water.
There are small, delicate balls!
We’re ready to try them! My daughter looks excited to put one in her mouth!
Once you pop them in your mouth, the juices burst! It’s fun, juicy, and delicious!
Activity #2: “Radioactive” Night Light. Marie discovered two elements, radium and polonium, and both are highly radioactive! One of the characteristics of something radioactive is that it gives off energy in the form of light which makes things glow in the dark, and in this activity, we made a “radioactive” night light and learned more about radioactivity!
For the second activity, we used a jar, glow paint, stencil sheet, glow hemp, glow beads, and a hanger.
My daughter decorated the jar using the glow paint, and wrote “you are radiant” on it.
She also added the beads with the use of the hemp and tied it around the jar’s lid. Then, she attached the hanger.
The lantern is looking gorgeous!
We love the addition of the glow beads, they make the lantern look colorful in the dark!
Yes, they did! Even the hemp holding the beads together glows!
Activity #3: X-Ray Machine. Marie also had a very important contribution to health care, as she made X-ray machines during World War I! For this activity, we made a pretend X-ray machine and learned more about the major bones in the body!
We used the crate, clear sheet, glue dots, cover, and X-rays for this activity.
My daughter made the X-ray box by attaching the cover and the clear sheet on the top of the crate.
Here are the different X-ray images that show the different bones in the body.
You can place the images on the X-ray box and you can see the outline of the bones!
This was really fun as we also tried to spot the broken ones!
Here’s one showing a chest X-ray!
My daughter really enjoyed the activities this month, they’re all fun and exciting!
Marie Curie is really an important figure in science. Imagine her determination to find out more about the elements and how she discovered radioactivity which turned out really useful in many aspects, especially in the medical field. My daughter really had fun doing the water chemistry activity, and the end product is really delightful. The lantern is also a very cool item that we made from this crate, while the X-ray activity taught us more about the major bones in the body. Overall, this is one amazing box that features an equally amazing woman who is really an inspiration for kids. Girls Can! Crate once again proved that they are one of the best activity boxes around!
Do you enjoy Girls Can Crate as much as we do? What’s your favorite thing about this subscription?
Comments
Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for the review.