Ready, Set, Play

The Kindergarteners & 1st Grade students at Aloha Huber Park School need YOU to help them learn literacy skills through play. We will build interactive “Play Boxes'' designed to stimulate and engage the senses, spark communication, and improve early literacy. These carefully selected materials will provide opportunities for collaborative, language-rich play. Play Box time will be followed by Writers’ Workshop, where students draw upon their play experience.  We expect the impact of our project to be immediate, long-lasting, and far-reaching as a key component of our literacy program. This project will foster social-emotional well being through friendship development and conflict management. Students can collaborate about how they will use the materials and practice turn-taking with materials. Most importantly, these materials will make literacy development more accessible to all students as they see themselves represented in the materials they play with. We look forward to using the Play Boxes to further our work in the areas of anti-bias/anti-racism by being mindful of the items we select. Play Boxes include high-interest, interactive, sensory stimulating play items along with natural materials. We plan to create a variety of different themed boxes. The following are some Play Box examples:

• Dinosaurs: dino figurines, sand, sticks, rocks
• Magnets: various magnetic toys, paperclips, shavings
• Marble Roll: marbles, tracks, loops, tubes
• Family: multicultural, multigenerational family figurines, play household items, pet figurines
• Habitats: animal/marine life figurines moss, sand, rocks, wood
• Shapes: various geometric 2D & 3D shapes
• Art Literacy: historical art “inspiration piece”, art supplies - paint, brushes, apron
• Color boxes: miscellaneous items all in the same color 
• Engineering: Legos, blocks, Lincoln Logs, gears, pulleys, ramps, tinker toys
• Light: mini light table, light mixing shapes/toys
• Microscopes & magnifiers: slides with various interesting materials 
• Fairytale Retelling: props to retell familiar stories
• Community: vehicles, community role figurines, signs, buildings
• Food: multicultural food items, dishes, timers
• Building/Fixing: tools, measuring tape, levels
• Textures (squishy, rough, soft, smooth): water beads or slime, sand paper, velvet, steelies
• Pottery: clay, playdough, cookie cutters, rolling pins
• Numbers: containers of smaller items in various amounts (erasers, bells, buttons, noodles, bday candles), number magnets, number cards, foam numbers, 
• Alphabet: items for each letter sound, letter magnets, letter cards, word cards/magnets, foam letters
• Junk: items often found in recycle or trash (bottle caps, TP tubes, containers, beans, scoops, wire, twine)
• First Aid: dolls, bandaids, gloves, stethoscopes, telephone, pillow, thermometer
• Scoops: rice or beans, tractors, measuring cups, spoons, funnels, straws

This project is supported by the Beaverton Education Foundation.

Founded in 1988, the Beaverton Education Foundation raises money to provide hands-on innovative academic enrichment and advancement programs & projects that go beyond normal school funding at all Beaverton public schools and is a 501(c)(3) community-based nonprofit organization. BEF mobilizes community resources to fund innovative classroom, summer and after-school programs.

In the event that this project does not reach its goal or exceeds its goal, BEF may apply the funds received to another similar project.