Girls Can! Crate is a monthly subscription box that inspires girls ages 5-10 to believe they can be and do anything by introducing them to fearless women who made the world better.
Each box will include a 20-page activity book telling the featured woman’s unique story (as well as games, experiments, & more), 2-3 hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activities related to her field, a creative play prop, a featured character trait that helped her succeed and 2-3 practical tips for parents to easily foster that trait, and more. The boxes are designed to encourage a love for STEAM, to foster creativity, curiosity, and support literacy development. With every box purchased, Girls Can! Crate donates 10% of the proceeds to nonprofit organizations working to empower women and girls.
Disclosure: I received this box for review purposes. I was not compensated in any way. All opinions are my own. Post may contain affiliate and/or referral links.
Subscriptions are $29.95/month or less with multi-month commitments. Shipping is free within the US.
Let’s see what’s in my September 2019 Girls Can! Crate!
Everything was shipped in a bright red box with the Girls Can! Crate logo on top.
A peek inside!
September’s featured “fearless woman” was Bertha Parker Pallan, the first female Native American archaeologist. An information card listed all of the activities in the crate and the order in which they should be completed. The reverse side included tips for parents on how to help their own children to become self-starters just like Bertha.
Activity Book
A 20-page, full color activity book included the story of Bertha Parker Pallan and how she taught herself about archeology & Native American history and culture.. It also included puzzles, games, experiments, and more. All of the activity instructions were printed in the booklet as well.
Activity #1: Dig Site
The first activity had us digging up our own mini-archeological site! Materials provided were a mini dig site, dig tools, and safety glasses.
We placed the dig site inside of the Girls Can! Crate box to help contain the mess. The girls each took turns using the provided tools to “dig” until an artifact was found.
Finally, after quite a bit of digging, they came upon their first object!
It was an “ancient” coin!
The girls took turns and shortly after starting, another item was found.
It was another coin, with a third one right below it.
Soon after, I decided there was too much dust going into the air (it was too windy to do it outside), so we broke the rest of the site up with a screwdriver. The girls recovered the rest of the coins, which I believe totaled 5-6 in all.
Activity #2: Create an Artifact
The second activity was to create our own bowl “artifact”. Materials included a paper basket template and orange raffia.
The first step was to punch out all of the circles and fold the “arms” of the template up to form a bowl-like shape.
Next, we tied the end of the raffia around the bottom “arm” of the template.
We then had to weave the raffia alternately through the outside and inside of the basket arms, from the bottom up.
The weaving part ended up being a lot more difficult than we anticipated, resulting in overlapping “arms” and a not-so-great-looking basket. We were supposed to finish the piece by weaving through the holes at the top, but the girls were already frustrated by how “not like the picture” it was turning out that we just left it as is. Can’t win ’em all!
Bonus: Make a Time Capsule
September’s box also included a bonus activity which involved creating a time capsule. The last page of the activity book was printed with a “Time Capsule Contents” list that could be included with the items chosen for the capsule. There was also a “My Time Capsule” sticker to place on the outside. We’ll be saving this project for a later date. 🙂
Once all of the activities were complete, we had officially earned our Bertha Parker Pallan collectible button. 🙂
Although the second activity didn’t quite turn out the way they wanted, my girls still enjoyed their September Girls Can! Crate. The highlight of the box was definitely the mini archeological dig site, which we would make sure to do OUTSIDE if given the chance again. 😉
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