Little Thinker Box is a monthly educational subscription box for children ages 3 through 6.
Each box will feature a different theme which is broken down into four different components: Read, Create, Explore, and Learn. The “Read” component will consist of a book based on the current month’s theme… “Create” will feature hands-on crafts… “Explore” will include pretend play props, science experiments, and other activities… Lastly, “Learn” (the heart of Little Thinker Box) will feature fun/educational worksheets used to make learning early foundational skills fun. Each fun sheet is grouped into one of three levels: Head Start, PreK, and Kindergarten. All levels are provided in each box, giving your child the opportunity to work in his/her level, as well as be exposed to levels that could challenge him/her. They always include a special snack in each box as well.
Subscriptions are $29.99/month or less with multi-month commitments. Shipping within the US is free.
Let’s see what’s in the July 2016 Little Thinker Box!
The box!
A peek inside.
The inside lid revealed July’s theme — Bees!
Welcome Kit – All new subscribers receive a welcome kit of items that will be used in future boxes. It includes a pencil, pack of crayons, plastic gator tweezers, and a pair of dice.
An info/intro card explained a little more about the theme and included questions to go along with the featured book — the “Read” component of the box.
READ: National Geographic Kids “Bees” Book – A full color, kid-friendly book all about bees. It’s packed with beautiful photos and tons of facts about how bees eat, work, pollinate flowers, produce honey, and more.
The rest of the components were separated into their own packets which held instructions and materials for all of the activities.
CREATE: Two bee-themed crafts were included for the “Create” component — Beehive and Bee.
Beehive – Materials included a yellow paper lantern, bee stickers, and a pipecleaner. After an adult helped assemble the lantern, it was up to your child to attach all of the bees to the “hive”.
The girls took turns sticking on each bee until the hive was sufficiently occupied. 😉
Bee – Materials included a yellow paper cup, 4 black pipecleaners, 2 white pipecleaners, 3 yellow pom-poms, 2 self-adhesive googly eyes, and glue dots. Using the glue dots, your child was to affix all of the “body parts” to the bee (cup) as explained on the info sheet.
Stickin’ on the little bee nose. I didn’t remember to snap a photo of the completed project, but he was cute. Promise.
EXPLORE: There were three activities for the “Explore” component — Become a Bee, Pollinate Flowers, and Drink Nectar.
Become a Bee – This activity involved your little one getting dressed up as a bee using the included bee vest and a quick DIY antennae project.
HAHA! I love it! 😀
Pollinate Flowers – Your little bee can practice pollinating using the included wooden flowers, yellow pom-poms, and gator tweezers.
Pollination in progress.
Drink Nectar – Using the same wooden flowers, your child/bee can pretend to drink nectar from them using the included bee party blower.
Nectar drinking was a definitely a hit. Nectar was collected from the flowers, table, stuffed animals, the air… 😉
LEARN: Bee-themed “Interactive Fun Cards” were included for 3 levels — Head Start, PreK, and Kindergarten. There were 4 different activities per level. My girls are heading to PreK in the fall, so that’s the level I chose. (We also worked on the Head Start activities as well.)
PreK Bee Counting – Ask your child to name the number on the card and then place the corresponding amount of bee erasers onto the hive. My kiddos just turned 4, so they can’t quite make it up to 19 so we had to help them out after 12 or so.
PreK Beginning Letter Sounds – My girls totally aced this one! They’ve been reciting the alphabet since they were 2 and are obsessed with letters. This activity was done by naming the object inside of each flower and decided whether or not it started with the letter B. If it did, a bee eraser would be placed on top.
PreK Honeycomb Shapes – Using the yellow pom-poms, your child placed one on each of the indicated shapes as noted on the info sheet. The first was circles… Once all of the circles were covered, your child was to count each one and announce the total. Repeat the process until all shapes have been cycled through.
PreK Bee and Honey Patterns – Using the pom-poms and bee erasers, complete the various patterns on the card. This was another one that was a bit too advanced, so I just let the girls complete the patterns that already had pictures.
SNACK: The featured snack for the bee-themed box was Teddy Grahams — honey flavored, of course!
My kids had a lot of fun with their first Little Thinker Box! I was really impressed with the amount of activities included and the theme was very well done. I like how they divide everything up into different components and provide activities for 3 learning levels. Overall, a great box!
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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