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 and can ship to either the United States or Canada. Although this box is intended for girls, I’m a firm believer that it’s crucial for boys to believe that girls can do whatever they set their minds to! I’m excited to work through this box with my son.
Each box arrives well packaged with attractive squiggles.
DEAL: Save 25% on your first box! Use coupon code HELLO25.
October’s crate is chock full of information, activities and supplies!
Ella Fitzgerald is the heroine of the October 2016 Girls Can Crate. My son has loved listening to old Ella Fitzgerald recordings for years (I highly recommend Miss Ella’s Playhouse for young children everywhere). He’s also a huge fan of scatting, and Ella was the best! Needless to say, my son was thrilled to get to work on this month’s Girls Can Crate!
I think these pointers are spot on! While I try to avoid telling my son that I think he’s smart, I don’t think I praise his effort enough. I’ll try to do that more! Whenever he asks me why someone is so good at something, I tell him because they practiced. A lot! Girls Can Crate always recommends the best books and movies. I’ll have to check out Soul Surfer! (I love Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken and Akeelah and the Bee and will try to have a movie night with my son sometime this month so that we can watch these together.)
My son enjoyed this introduction to Ella Fitzgerald’s life very much.
He wrote that he’s shown much determination through swimming.
The enclosed activity booklet included a song about Ella Fitzgerald’s life as well as fun activities that helped build upon the themes of the book.
My son loved listening to me sing Ella’s life story. He thought it was a really cool touch!
I like how Girls Can Crate offers suggestions for timing the activities within the main activity book. This helps me as a grown up structure my son’s time as he explores his crate each month.
Activity one demonstrates the existence of sound waves.
Here, children create a tube that traps sound waves and pushes them out through a hole. The waves, in turn, make pictures of Ella Fitzgerald and her microphone vibrate.
First, children decorate, cut out and tape pictures of Ella Fitzgerald and her microphone to the top of their Girls Can Crate.
Next, they hit the completely enclosed end of the tube, forcing the now vibrating air out the other end through the hole. This, in turn, makes the picture vibrate. Cool!
I liked the enclosed sound wave explanation very much!
The next set of activities asked children to make their own working instruments.
First, my son got to work creating his own guitar.
I helped out a bit, especially with the tightening of the bolt, but otherwise, my son enjoyed making this on his own.
He loved investigating the pitches made by the different rubber bands.
After exploring his new guitar, my son got to work on his harmonica.
He enjoyed playing it very much!
Next up was a drum. What kid doesn’t like playing drums?
I loved that Girls Can Crate included a mallet for the drum!
The trickiest part of this activity was stretching the balloon over the drum base.
How fun!
Finally, my son got to work on the tambourine.
This was simple and fun to make – a lot like stringing beads!
My son loved playing his working tambourine!
After my son had finished constructing each instrument, we very much enjoyed reading about the science behind the sound of each instrument.
Among the many activities this month was the opportunity to listen to a Girl Empowerment Playlist on Spotify. We had a lot of fun listening to it as a family while pretending to sing along holding this microphone. We also listened to the Ella Fitzgerald songs mentioned in the activities online (these included “Bewitched” – which some parents may object to, “A Tisket A Tasket,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Cry Me a River” and “Night and Day”).
As always, this month’s activities were a lot of fun. Students got to match instruments with their spellings, decode Ella Fitzgerald Songs from pictures, connect the dots, find hidden objects, complete a word search and solve math problems involving note length values. There were also a couple of other activities in the book, including making an ice cream cone and playing glasses containing different amounts of water. Fun!
To commemorate Girls Can Crate’s anniversary, this month’s box included a couple of bonuses: some stickers and a lovely necklace.
My son offered the fearless necklace to his sister, who loved it!
I can’t say I blamed her – I wanted it for myself!
The back of the necklace includes pictures of all of the Girls Can Crate heroines from this, their first year.
My son and I absolutely love Girls Can Crate. In fact, this month’s box may have been our favorite kids’ subscription box ever! We love listening to and playing music together, and this box taught us even more about what we love.
Since we’ve started reviewing this subscription, we’ve learned about Title IX, Music, and Coding. Next month, we can’t wait to learn about secret codes! I love how this box introduces young learners to an array of different topics that are often overlooked in more formal school settings. My son loves how much fun he has completing each box’s activities. Win-win!
Do you enjoy Girls Can Crate as much as we do? What’s your favorite thing about this subscription?
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