Atlas Crate is a monthly subscription from KiwiCo that specializes in geography and culture for children between ages 6 to 11 years old. This box is designed to spark kids’ sense of adventure and curiosity, inspiring them to see themselves as citizens of the world. Kids can see and connect with the rest of the world, helping them grow beyond their own experience as they explore the globe.
KiwiCo also offers Kiwi Crate, Koala Crate, Doodle Crate, Tinker Crate, Panda Crate, Maker Crate, and Eureka Crate. Atlas Crate is a great addition to the KiwiCo family as geography and exploration is always a favorite activity!
DEAL: Save 30% on your first month with this link on any KiwiCo line, no coupon code required!
This month’s box is all about CANADA!
All the items are neatly stacked inside!
Upon opening, we are welcomed by the cards and pamphlets that are essential to the activities. This subscription emphasizes learning through creative play as they provide in this box everything the kids might need. It builds a sense of adventure, an appreciation of other cultures, builds a sense of global citizenship and opportunity for parents and grandparents to bond with children.
I can see a lot of interesting items inside!
Everything in the crate!
First, we got this letter that says “Salut!” which means “Hi!” in French. According to the envelope, Canada has two official languages: English and French!
The letter opens up to show us an introduction to Canada.
Every flap of the envelope has information about the box. We are also given a beautiful surprise of trivia cards filled with fascinating facts and photos.
One of the flaps has Atlas Quest, which you’ll need to fill out after exploring the country!
You can explore more online after you get your box with additional activities and book suggestions! Atlas Crate recommends When the Moon Comes and Carson Crosses Canada.
Atlas Crate Adventure Book
Missed our first review? You’ll get the rings in your first box, which will always start with the WORLD crate. Check out that review here!
Each month, we also get a sticker that represents the featured country. This month’s sticker features a moose, which is the mascot of Canada!
We placed our newest sticker on the Adventure Book, along with the other countries that we have already explored!
There you go! We’ve explored so many places already!
The table of contents is on the edge of each page for easy reading, just like how a travel book works.
This booklet also comes with a cute illustration of the country’s map with some fun facts and drawings of Canada’s notable events, sports, places, or products from that particular location.
Atlas Crate Activities
These pages feature the beginning of the adventures of Anya and Milo in Canada.
One of their first stops is the Quebec City in Quebec followed by the Boreal forest in Ontario, Balgary Stampede in Alberta, Totem Pole in British Columbia, and the Churchill in Hudson Bay where there are some sightings of the largest land carnivores in the world, the Polar Bears!
Milo and Anya also visited the Banff National Park, Canada’s oldest national park where hot springs are hidden on the caves of snowy mountains together with crystal blue lakes. This park is known to be the most visited park in Canada.
Aside from the crystal blue lakes, icy mountain, and hidden hot springs, Banff park also features more enticing attractions that every kid will love!
Atlas Crate Recipe
This month’s featured recipe is Maple Butter Tarts. It’s one of Canada’s most popular sweet treats, made with butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, egg, flour, vanilla, and frozen mini tart shells.
The booklet also included detailed instructions on making delectable Maple Butter Tarts!
My kids started off by mixing all the ingredients such as the egg, flour, vanilla extract, and salt.
They also added a quarter cup of maple syrup in the mixture.
For the next step, they put the dough rounds into the muffin tin and pressed lightly to form tart shells. Then, they added raisins and pecans and filled each shell 3/4 full of the maple syrup mixture.
We baked it for 15-17 minutes!
When the tarts have puffed up, we let them cool off for a few more minutes then transferred them to a plate.
My kids really enjoyed making them, and they were also satisfied with the outcome!
Atlas Crate Projects
For this month’s Atlas Crate projects, we made our own Moose Snow Globe and Hockey Goal!
As always the crate provides all the materials needed to complete the projects.
Activity #1: Hockey Goal. For this project, we used the game board hockey rink, goal, goalie, sticky foam, hinge, short and long stick, and hockey wood set.
Featured at the back of the booklet are some fun facts about hockey and the legendary hockey player, Wayne Gretzky.
The first organized game of hockey was played in Montreal way back in 1875. Today, over 80% of Canadians tune in to watch hockey every week with about 8,300 ice rinks, Canada has more places to shoot the puck than any other country in the world!
This hockey goal project is divided into four different parts: making the goal, adding of goalie, building the hockey stick, and playing hockey!
Each section came with detailed instructions on what and how to do it!
While my daughter is having fun reading about the famous Banff National Park, my sons are getting ready to start the project.
They started by folding up the hockey rink and the goal, then they peeled the backing off the surface and stuck the goal to the rink.
Then, they stuck the foam block at the back of the goalie then put the long stick on the foam block and poked it through the small round hole in the goal.
After working on the ice rink and goal, the next thing my kids did is to assemble the hockey stick using the wood set.
The key to making the hockey stick successful is in the installation of the sticky foam and rubber band.
My sons made sure that they are properly placed so that the hockey stick can swing fast and strong.
You can control the goalie using the stick behind the goal.
To try, we need two players, one is for controlling the goalie and the other is for the hockey stick.
To play, hold the launcher frame with one hand, pull back on the knob with the other, and then release!
Check out how the goalie defended our strike!
Activity #2: Moose Snow Globe. For the second project, we used watercolors, paintbrush, paper shapes, base, sticky foam wedges, paper ring, sticky foam curves, antlers, sticky foam circle, foam beads, dome, and bellows.
The back of the booklet features some amazing facts about moose!
Moose can be found in almost every part of Canada – in snowy forests, by lakes and streams. You might even see one taking a casual stroll across a highway.
This project is also divided into four different parts: painting the scene, assembling the scene, adding the globe, and putting “snow”!
Just like the first activity, this one also came with a detailed instruction sheet.
Before starting the project, it’s important to spread some scrap paper to protect your work surface.
Using the watercolor, my daughter painted one side of the moose, tree, and mountain paper shapes then let them dry.
Once the paintings are dry, she quickly assembled the scene by sliding the short end of the trees on the paper ring.
Then, she slid the moose’s front leg into the slit and then added the antlers into the moose’s head.
After the scene is assembled, she added the globe by putting the foam beads in the middle of the mountain and put the dome on the base.
Lastly, she slid the ring down around the dome, stuck it to the base, and locked it.
To make the snow fly, you simply just need to give the bellows a quick squish!
Here are all the projects we did for this month!
This month’s Atlas Crate brought us to another fun and exciting place, Canada! My kids enjoyed everything in this crate, from all the information and trivia from the booklet, to the recipes, and amazing projects. My kids have learned a lot of awesome things about Canada, like their famous Banff National Park where you can see a variety of eye-catching views and crystal clear body of water. We were also able to lean more about polar bears, which are known as the largest land carnivores, and moose, which is the largest and heaviest existing species of deer. All in all, it’s an amazing adventure to Canada, and we’re really excited where the next box will bring us!
What do you think of KiwiCo’s Atlas Crate?
Comments