This year, our Whitford tech students are engaging with an engineering and design project combining multiple future-ready skills: coding, design, and engineering. They begin by learning how to program a Microbit using both blocks and text. Students program the Microbit to receive and display messages, operate small motors, and act as a light and temperature sensor. Additionally, they use CAD software to make vehicles that can be programmed to follow a course they create. The addition of a Motobit allows students to use larger motors that require more advanced programming and engineering to support multiple motors. Our project aligns with Oregon’s current Tech Standards as well as some of the Next Generation Science Standards. Most importantly, it is fun and engaging! Please support Whitford’s technology program with your donation today!
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The micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer designed to inspire creative thinking in children that can be programmed in many different ways. Through the micro:bit, students are encouraged to explore ideas using real code. The device helps students experience the interaction between hardware and software, and it gives students practical computer knowledge. Using the micro:bit, students can see how the code on-screen has a direct impact on the device they’re holding in their hand. Not only do students learn about coding, but they also engage with mathematical concepts like variables, coordinates, geometry, and conditional logic. Stoller students LOVE coding, so help us support their engineering curiosity with MICRO:BITS!
After-school clubs are a pillar of what makes Meadow Park an amazing community for our students and families. Students are able to have a safe place to engage in positive interactions with their peers and adults outside of the regular classroom environment. Art Club has been one of the most popular after-school clubs at Meadow Park for the past several years. It is run as a makerspace with time, supplies, and support provided for students to pursue their own creative ideas. Having access to a variety of art supplies is essential for students to have a successful and engaging experience! Thank you for helping to make Art Club possible!
In a typical middle school ceramics unit, students are eager to begin building their projects. Unfortunately, valuable class time is often spent waiting while clay is hand-rolled or uneven slabs are corrected. With a clay slab roller in the art room, students quickly receive consistent slabs and can move directly into designing, problem-solving, and constructing their work. The slab roller not only increases efficiency but also empowers students to experiment with thickness, texture, and form, encouraging creative risk-taking and independence. As a result, more time is spent creating, collaborating, and refining ideas, transforming the ceramics project into a more engaging, equitable, and meaningful learning experience for every student. A clay slab roller will allow the middle school art program, serving approximately 180 students each year, to prepare materials efficiently and maximize instructional time. It will also give students consistent access to quality clay slabs for experimenting with shaping and construction techniques, benefiting hundreds of students for years to come. Please support our 180 budding artists by helping us secure a slab roller!
This year, our Whitford tech students are engaging with an engineering and design project combining multiple future-ready skills: coding, design, and engineering. They begin by learning how to program a Microbit using both blocks and text. Students program the Microbit to receive and display messages, operate small motors, and act as a light and temperature sensor. Additionally, they use CAD software to make vehicles that can be programmed to follow a course they create. The addition of a Motobit allows students to use larger motors that require more advanced programming and engineering to support multiple motors. Our project aligns with Oregon’s current Tech Standards as well as some of the Next Generation Science Standards. Most importantly, it is fun and engaging! Please support Whitford’s technology program with your donation today!
From mythology to Shakespeare, ISB 7th graders are learning about literature and performance in their Language Arts classes. We would like to take this exploration outside the classroom and allow students to experience a live production with Portland Center Stage this spring! This field trip will support our Performance targets which we do through mythology retellings and Shakespeare “Much Ado About Nothing” performances in class. This experience will allow students to analyze professional performers and learn about stage directions, blocking, and voice techniques to improve their own work. Exciting!
The cost of tickets and bus transportation for 150 students is challenging within our school’s budget. We would be so grateful for any support we can receive to help offset the cost of this exciting, artistic, and educational opportunity.
We look forward to sharing tales of our adventure to the theater and seeing the impact it makes on our students. Thank you for your support!
Mountainside and Aloha High Schools have created a performing arts class that is rooted in universal design and inclusive practices, where students with disabilities can thrive in a space built specifically with their needs in mind. BEF is collaborating with educators this year-long performing arts program has just gotten underway, but the new classes need adaptive musical instruments, props and costumes for movement and theater activities. Teachers also want to take students on field trips to experience live theater. Your donation will help invest in immersive and meaningful experiences in the arts for students with unique learning needs.
Emergent readers need to read each night at home with an adult to reinforce the language and literacy skills they are learning at school. It is important that the books they are reading at home are “good fit” books that are similar to the books that we are using in our classroom. It can be challenging for families to access high-quality decodable books, and the ones we have in our classroom libraries need to stay at school. Jacob Wismer would like to start a lending library of engaging, high-quality decodable books that I can send home with students to read at home. When finished with the books, they would be returned to school, allowing many students to benefit from the use of these books.
Imagine a kindergartener’s excitement as they bring home their very first book to read aloud with their family only to discover there are very few Spanish books available that match their reading level. For many of our K–2 dual language learners, this is a daily reality. Spanish texts are difficult to find, and when they are available, they often cost twice as much as English books. This lack of access creates an inequitable start for our bilingual students who are working hard to build skills in both English and Spanish.
With your support, we will provide our teachers and students with a one-year Raz-Plus Español subscription, a digital library that allows teachers to download, print, and assign leveled Spanish books. These books will fill our classroom book boxes, support small group instruction, and go home with students so families can read together in their native language. Each story is thoughtfully written by Spanish-language authors or authentically transadapted to preserve cultural and linguistic integrity.
This project will help our young learners grow as confident readers in both languages, strengthening their literacy, honoring their heritage, and promoting family engagement. Your contribution will help us make reading in Spanish as accessible and joyful as reading in English. Together, we can give every child the tools to become a proud, lifelong bilingual reader.
The ChompSaw is an amazing tool that allows students to turn their creative imaginations into a reality! ChompSaw is a child-safe, oscillating cutting tool that helps students cut cardboard and other materials safely and easily. Oak Hills students, from kindergarten to 5th grade, had the opportunity to test out these devices, and they absolutely loved using them! ChompSaws make it easy to cut not just straight lines, but fun, curvy shapes too. Teachers are also able to use these tools to develop instructional materials that are unique to the needs of students. ChompSaw is a HIT!
Experimenting with the ChompSaw made it clear how ENGAGING the tool is for all students—especially those with social-emotional or special needs. Many students who usually have a hard time staying focused were completely absorbed in the activity. Some who often leave class chose to stay and work. It was incredible to see every child so deeply involved in hands-on learning.
Oak Hills Elementary School would love to continue using these amazing tools and expand the program so more classes can participate—but they need your help to make it happen!
If you’re able, please consider making a donation to support more ChompSaws and materials for our students. Your generosity helps bring creativity, problem-solving, and joy into classrooms every day.
Kindergarten students learn in a variety of ways, and much of that learning happens through the use of their senses. Sensory play supports the development of fine motor skills, early literacy and math concepts, social-emotional growth, and language development. With tools like scoops, tweezers, and small manipulatives, students will strengthen coordination and communication while learning new vocabulary. Sensory play also helps students regulate emotions, focus during lessons, and participate more successfully in group activities. We are excited to help these young learners explore weather, seasons, pet care, gardens, construction and other interesting topics through their senses. These materials will allow each child to explore textures, practice sharing, and engage in joyful, purposeful play. Your support will make learning more meaningful, accessible, and fun for all students!
They’re back at it again this school year! The Health Careers students are excited to bring the Teddy Bear Clinic program to BSD kindergarten and first-graders once more. The Teddy Bear Clinic is a fun and educational opportunity where young students learn about health care and wellness through hands-on activities—using their own stuffed animals as “patients.”
This is a great opportunity for Health Careers students to use some of their basic patient assessment and first aid skills, encouraging teamwork and boosting confidence as they interact with younger students in a nurturing role. On the flip side, elementary students learn about basic healthcare practices and first aid in a fun and engaging way to reduce anxiety about visiting doctors or clinics. This is also a great way for young students to create stories and situations/injuries for their teddy bears, promoting creativity and storytelling.
The goal is to provide a teddy bear to each student to be used in the clinic, and then this bear may be taken to a doctor’s office to provide comfort and mitigate fear. A $10 donation supports one student with one bear. How many students will you be able to support?
Thank you for continuing to support this meaningful and memorable program!
