Ivy Kids time! My girls are finally taking more interest in crafts and semi-structured activities, so I was excited to see what was in store for June’s box.
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.
Let’s see what’s in the June Ivy Kids box!
The big (and heavy!) green box.
As always, all of the activities were listed on the inside of the lid along with photos of the materials included for each one.
“Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey – The featured book this month was “Blueberries for Sal”, a cute story about a little girl and a baby bear on the hunt for blueberries.
Blue Modeling Clay – Your child can use this modeling clay to make their own little blueberries just like the ones in the book. If they want to continue to play with them, the clay just needs to air dry for it to harden. If they’d rather continue to make different creations, just put all of the clay back into the resealable bag for later use.
Blueberry Munch – Two players are needed for this game. Each player gets a metal pail to hold their blueberries. Player one starts out with 10 berries in their pail. Player 2 asks Player 1 to turn around and then “eats” some of Player 1’s berries. It’s up to Player 1 to count how many they have left to see how many Player 2 “ate”. I tried this with my girls, but although they can count to 10, they were more interested in just playing (fighting over?) the little blueberries. Toddlers…
My Bear Frame – Every Ivy Kids box comes with a personalized item for your child. This time it was bear “frames” for them to decorate, then punch out the “face hole”, and insert their own photo.
Evie actually drew a face on the bear, which wasn’t quite the point of the activity… BUT this was the first real identifiable face she’s ever drawn, so I kinda love it.
Blueberry Preserves and Jar Activity – A blue paint dotter was provided for your child to fill the jars with “blueberries”. Different sized jars required different amount of blueberries, and there was even a recipe included to make real blueberry preserves.
All About Blueberries – A full-color info sheet showed your child how blueberries grow.
Blueberry Bear Bread Recipe and Bear-Shaped Mold – A cute bear-shaped mold was provided along with a recipe for blueberry bread. I wonder if I can veganize this… Sounds tasty!
Mama Bear and Little Bear – Your child can make their own mama bear and baby bears using the materials included. I cut the shapes out myself, but then had the girls help squeeze the glue onto each piece and tell me where each one should go.
Feed the Bears – This is a simple game that involves cutting out all of the letters and then feeding all of the uppercase ones to mama bear and the lowercase ones to baby bear. My kiddos have known all of their letters for quite a while now and love to recite the alphabet, but they weren’t too interested in following the “rules” of this game…
…They just wanted to feed the bears all the letters at once. I guess they were really hungry. 😉
Mama Bear Word Game – This game involved putting all of the uppercase letters in the mama bear bag then taking turns pulling one out and coming up with words that start with the letter you’ve chosen. I followed the Little Ivy tip that suggested picking a letter and seeing if your child can correctly identify it. Since both girls know them all, I had them shout out the letter and whoever said it first got a blueberry. If they both said it at the same time, they both got one.
Kuplink, Kuplank, Kuplunk – While reading the book again, whenever you get to a part where Sal puts 3 blueberries into her pail, have your kiddo do the same with theirs while saying “kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk”.
Blueberry Pie Recipe and Art Activity – A recipe for real blueberry pie was provided, along with materials to make a pretend one. The blue dotter would be used to make blueberries and the popsicle sticks were to be glued on top to complete the pie.
They went a little overboard with the sticks, but you can still see some of the blueberries peeking through.
Blueberry Hunt – You’re supposed to hide or scatter the blueberries all over the house and have your child hunt for them and count each one as they put it in their pail. We went the easier route and just dumped them on the dining room floor and had the girls scramble for ’em. 😉
How Many Blueberries? – Using the number cards, you can create your own math problems for your child to solve with help from the blueberries. My girls can both count to 10, but weren’t really up for math. I don’t think many 2-year-olds would be. (Or 30-somethings, for that matter. haha)
Blueberry Picking – This game was fun. You use the spinner to see how many blueberries you get to “pick” from the blueberry bush. If you land on a knocked-over pail, you have to put some back, but we skipped that part. We also didn’t use the little tweezers to pick them to make it easier.
Where is Little Bear? – Your child can decorate the little white bear with the blue dotter or their own markers, then use the positional cards to play hide and seek with the bear.
Both girls were very hesitant to decorate their bears, but managed to give them a little bit of color.
The finished bears.
Blueberry Hill – Your child can use the blue dotter to make blueberries all over Blueberry Hill and use the cut-out characters to retell the story from the book. They can also write down their favorite part of the story on the lines below the drawing.
This was such a fun box from Ivy Kids! I love that my kiddos are getting old enough to enjoy crafts, so it was great to see them engaged with all of the cute blueberry-themed activities. Of course, my husband isn’t too keen on having little blueberries scattered all over the house now, but I’m cool with it. A few blue pom-poms on the couch never hurt anyone, right? 😉
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. Plus, new subscribers will also receive a free gift and a monthly personalized item for their child!
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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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