KiwiCo – Koala Crate: Baking

This month, Penny received her Koala Crate from KiwiCo. This month’s theme was: Baking. KiwiCo creates wonderful STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) related project boxes full of engaging and creative activities tailored to your child’s age. There are currently eight lines available; choose the one suitable for your child’s age range and interest, choose your subscription plan (can be paused or cancelled at any time) and have your kid’s monthly crate delivered to your door. The ‘Koala Crate’ is designed with ages 2-4 in mind.

As I mentioned, this month’s theme was baking, however, I knew KiwiCo would have a fun twist on this activity. Inside her crate were two booklets; one for the ‘Grownup Assistant’ containing the easy-to-follow instructions and the other was the ‘Imagine! Play & Learn Magazine for Kids’. The magazine contained puzzles, a short story about ‘Kellan the Koala’, colouring-in pages, a banana muffin recipe and book recommendations to extend your little one’s understanding.

Chef Hat

Materials: multicoloured paint pens, foam shapes and a chef hat

The first activity was very simple but fun. It was a messy project, yet didn’t require a whole lot of adult involvement. It involved dipping pre-cut foam shapes into the paint and creating designs and pictures of food to decorate the chef hat in preparation for the next activity. There were examples in our instructions on how to use the basic shapes to create pictures of different kinds of food like ice cream, blueberries and apples. Penny loved experimenting with the paint to make new colours.

Pretend Cake

Materials: clay icing bags, a stick, cake decorations and foam cake slices

This was another activity were Penny could take the lead. The instructions told us to ‘ice’ each foam section separately, so we could then stack them and share sections of the cake but Penny wanted to make one giant cake so I left her to it while she got to grips with the clay. The squeezy clay was the perfect consistency for younger children to spread and create different designs and patterns.

Measuring Fun

Materials: measuring cups and activity cards

The instructions provided contained useful reminders for parents about specific talking points throughout each activity or experiment. The activity cards provided were full of fantastic ideas on how to use the measuring cups provided to develop and extend your children’s understanding of how we measure different quantities and the importance of accuracy. There were instructions on how to use them in different ways including how to measure volume, how to make bubbles using dish soap and sugar and making trail mix for a healthy snack. Penny used her cups to play at the sink. Filling different sizes, combining them to explore volume, washing her dolls hair with them and making ‘cups of tea’ with frothy bubbles on top.