Kiwi Crate is a kids’ craft and activity subscription that comes with everything you need to complete a great project or two, usually a pair of crafts that can be used as toys or playtime props. The box is geared for ages 5-8, and the projects are always age-appropriate, though some require more parental assistance than others.
Kiwi Crate is the most popular craft and activity subscription box for kids!
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first box of Kiwi Crate! (or KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate, Koala Crate, Atlas Crate, Cricket Crate, Doodle Crate, and Maker Crate).
This month’s theme is DEEP-SEA DISCOVERY!
Everything was neatly packed in the box. Also, Kiwi Crate includes all necessary supplies for the featured activities, plus explore! magazine.
Build a hungry, gear-powered anglerfish that really chomps, then play a game to fill up its belly. Then design a submarine seek-and-find art piece full of hidden creatures that you can only sea when you shine a flashlight on them!
Explore! Magazine
An issue of explore magazine is included in every Crate. It is full of fun content that brings the project to life. explore! has read, draw, learn, explore, eat, and make designated activities. There is really a lot to look at and read – a comic, puzzles, and games – and it really extends your young one’s engagement with the Crate. Each expands on the theme of the box, whether through factoids, drawing activities, or recipes, but the variation is helpful for engaging different learning styles and interests.
KiwiCo, Inspiring young innovators with seriously fun and enriching hands-on experiences.
There is always a comic featuring Steve the Kiwi and his pals.
My kids started by reading the magazine, and they enjoyed it a lot!
Their favorite part of the magazine is the comic strip with Steve the Kiwi.
This magazine includes a lot of historical and scientific information related to the current theme. This month, it’s all about the science of the deep sea.
This part of the magazine features the different types of creatures Steve and his pals encountered as they went deeper down the ocean floor.
They even provided us additional information about the featured sea creature, the anglerfish!
To help scientists study and explore the ocean, scientists built machines that can go deep underwater. This part of the magazine features submarines used for underwater exploration. There’s also a fun activity on the opposite page, which is a submarine scavenger hunt.
The booklet even introduced a unique recipe that is closely related to this month’s theme, the delicious submarine sandwich! Also, there’s a Kiwi quiz on the next page and instructions on how to send a letter to Steve.
Kiwi Crate Crafts
The second booklet that comes in every crate is the actual instruction booklet for the crafts, and it often includes additional activities beyond the extension projects included in explore!
Every Kiwi Crate comes with a unique Steve sticker (like your merit badge for completing the box). The first box of an annual subscription includes a poster for displaying your earned stickers.
The booklet contains a list of all the supplies they provided for the crafts. It also has a rating of messiness and parental involvement for each activity.
Here are all the items for this month’s Deep-Sea Discovery project!
The first activity is building our own Chomping Anglerfish!
For this project, we used the anglerfish pieces, big wheel pieces, foam triangles, small gears, spacers, sticky guides, bolts, foam donuts, small wheel, jaw piece, pipe cleaner, holder, bead, and wiggle eyes.
As always, the booklet contains detailed step-by-step instruction on how to properly build the project. They even provided us with illustrations on how it should look like.
My kids built the big wheel first. They peeled off both sides of the stickers and placed them on one of the big wheel pieces.
The next step is to push the spacers into the holes, slide the small gear over the spacers, and stick it to the wheel piece. Then, slide on the second wheel piece and push it down to stick everything together.
Afterward, my kids arranged the huge anglerfish piece, poked the bolt through the holes, placed the spacers on top, and then screwed it in place.
They also peeled off the green sticky guide and attached it to the matching shape on the anglerfish piece. They made sure that the side of the wooden piece with the letters is facing up.
Next, my son slid a foam donut onto the spacer by the chin, stacked the jaw piece on top, then added the other foam donut. He also placed the wheel near the belly part and topped it using the other side of the fish, then used the bolts to lock it.
It’s almost complete! The next thing my son did is to ;ook for the slots at the top of the fish, then he gently tugged the sides apart and slid in the pipe-cleaner holder. Then, he fitted the ends of the holder into the slots.
Lastly, he slid the bead onto the other end of the pipe cleaner, tugged it up, and twisted it around to keep the bead in place.
For the next part of the project, we worked on creating the anglerfish’s preys!
Featured on the other side of the booklet is the proper way to play the game.
We used prey stickers, wood rounds, and wood pegs for this part of the project.
My kids peeled the stickers and attached them to a wooden round. Then, they grabbed the matching sticker and attached it to another wood round. Finally, they put the two pieces together using the wood peg!
Here’s how are anglerfish and wooden prey should look like once done!
To play, all you need to do is align the prey pieces and let them stand on their flat sides, place the anglerfish on the end, and push it forward.
Push down the anglerfish’s back and just roll it forward!
The jaw will scoop up the prey and toss it inside its mouth and into its belly.
The wooden prey piece will roll down from the mouth to the belly, and out under the tail part.
The green sticky foam will serve as a guide and a stopper, to slow the roll of the wooden piece out of the anglerfish’s body.
The second activity is the Submarine Seek-and-Find! This project is about drawing a hidden deep-sea scene then trying to find the creatures in the dark!
For this activity, we used their provided submarine window, clear square, paper flashlight, stencil, and dry-erase markers.
The second activity also comes with a detailed step-by-step procedure and illustrations.
My son used the dry-erase markers and stencil to draw a deep-sea scene on the square. He made sure that all the drawings are inside the dotted white circle.
He put the paper flashlight inside the window and between the clear tab and the black backing. To get the full effect, he also made sure that the flashlight is placed under the clear tab.
The next step is to slide the flashlight around inside the window to find the hidden creatures in the scene.
Check out what we found on our window, it’s a viperfish!
Here’s another sea creature on our window, an anglerfish! Its round shape and the highly visible glowing element at the end of its antenna was definitely a dead giveaway.
Kiwi Crate never fails to come up with new themes and fun science-related projects that my kids enjoy. This month, my son had a fantastic time making the anglerfish, as well as playing with it afterward. What’s great about this activity box is that it already has most of the materials inside so all you have to do is to get started when it arrives. We also appreciate the mini-mag, as it’s very informative and the approach is very kid-friendly! My kids learned a lot of things about the deep sea creatures and also enjoyed the on-page activities. Once again, they’ve proved that this box from KiwiCo is one of the best kids’ STEM and craft subscriptions around!
Did you enjoy this month’s activity? Let us know in the comments!
Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box!
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