April Ivy Kids time! This month’s box was all about butterflies and my girls were super into it.
If you’re not aware, Ivy Kids is a monthly activity box for children aged 3 through 8. It was founded by a certified early childhood educator, turned stay-at-home mom who had begun creating her own activities in order to entertain and educate her kiddos.
Every Ivy Kids kit contains more than 10 activities, along with a book which all of the activities are based upon. The games, projects, and crafts are all designed to “develop fine and gross motor muscles, build math and literacy skills, encourage reading comprehension, and promote scientific thinking”. All of the materials you’ll need are included right in your kit, as well as instructions and age modifications for each project.
Subscriptions are $38.95/month, or less with multi-month commitments. — You can save 20% on your first box with coupon code “IVY20“!
Let’s see what’s in the April 2016 Ivy Kids box!
The familiar green box!
A peek inside.
As always, all of the activities were listed on the inside of the lid along with photos of the materials included for each one.
“Gotta Go! Gotta Go!” by Sam Swope – The featured book for April’s box follows the lifecycle of a Monarch butterfly as her instincts take her on a long journey (migration) to Mexico. A great book to introduce little ones to the amazing feats of the Monarch.
Every box includes a personalized item for your child/children. This month it was a butterfly to paint as an experiment in symmetrical design. (Paint one side of the butterfly, then fold in half to imprint the design on its other side.)
Butterfly Life Cycle Wheel – After reading the book, your child can make and decorate their own butterfly life cycle wheel using the materials provided — a pack of washable markers, paper lifecycle wheel, and a metal fastener to hold it together.
Coloring the Monarch!
The completed wheels.
Butterfly Symmetry – Using the butterfly cards and colored pom-poms, your child can learn about symmetry (and math!). Just match the colored dots up with the respective pom-poms and repeat the pattern on the other side of the butterfly.
The fancy “spiked” pom-poms didn’t work too well for gluing, but the girls still had fun.
My Butterfly Garden – Included were all the materials needed to grow your own little garden for attracting butterflies. A plastic tray planter, soil pellets, seeds, and even decorative butterfly stickers (for the planter).
We decided to wait to plant the seeds, but we did let the girls decorate their planters.
Butterfly Magnets – This activity was a little on the messy side, so of course the girls had a lot of fun with it. 😉 It involved using markers to scribble all over the coffee filters, getting them wet using the included water dropper, and decorating a clothespin with pom-poms. The end result would be a butterfly coffee filter clothespin magnet.
Of course, they loved the messy part — squeezing the water onto the colored filter.
Attaching the mini pom-poms.
The end results! Cute. 🙂
Clay Model of the Butterfly Life Cycle – Your child can make 3D models of the butterfly’s lifecycle using modeling clay, along with some guidance from an information sheet and lifecycle wheel.
Save the Monarch Butterflies — Plant Milkweed – I had no idea that milkweed is the ONLY thing a Monarch caterpillar eats! It’s also the only plant that Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on. Crazy. To help ensure Monarchs have a food to eat and a place to reproduce, Ivy Kids included a packet of milkweed seeds to grow in your yard.
Caterpillar Patterns – Using the spiky pom-poms from the butterfly symmetry activity, your little one could practice making patterns using the colorful caterpillar boards.
Happy little caterpillars.
Hanging Butterfly – We didn’t receive the cardboard cut-outs for this project, but it looks like you were to color the white butterflies, attach together, and decorate them with pom-poms. The finished project could be hung up for decoration.
Butterfly Handprint or Footprint – I think this was both mine and the girl’s favorite project of the month. Using the provided paint set, a grown-up paints a symmetrical design/color scheme on the child’s hands or feet. Place the painted hands/feet onto the white canvas to create a colorful butterfly!
They were super pumped about the whole “painting their hands” thing.
I absolutely love how the “paintings” turned out and think it’s great that Ivy Kids included a keepsake project in this month’s box.
My Monarch Butterfly – A realistic Monarch butterfly, an information board, and markers were included to inspire your child to draw their own colorful Monarch on the sheet provided.
Rhyming Wings Matching Game – A butterfly-themed rhyming game that involved matching butterfly wings to their rhyming word counterparts. My kiddos did surprisingly well with these and I was impressed by how fast they made the matches.
Mexi-Go! – Ivy Kids always includes a cute board game in each box. This time it involved moving your butterfly along the path to Mexico and back to North America to lay its eggs.
Another fun box from Ivy Kids! My kiddos really enjoyed the butterfly theme and learned a lot about the mighty Monarchs. 🙂
If you’re interested in signing up for Ivy Kids, you can save 20% on your first box just by using the promo code “IVY20” at checkout.
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.
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