Grants in Action: The Right Tool to Join In

Every kid wants in on the fun. Sometimes they just need the right tool to get there.

There’s a student at Poulsbo Elementary who used to spend a lot of her day with her hands over her ears. In a loud, busy classroom, the noise was too much. Covering her ears helped, but it also meant she couldn’t use both hands to take part, and feeling overwhelmed often tipped into a hard day. Then she got a pair of noise-reducing headphones, and everything changed. With the noise turned down, she could uncover her ears, use both hands, and join in calmly across the whole school day.

Those ear defenders came from a North Kitsap Schools Foundation grant, one that equipped the school’s occupational therapy and speech rooms with the right tools to help students with different needs participate alongside their peers. The idea was to give every kid a way in.

For occupational therapist Daniela Muñiz, the new games were an immediate hit. Tools like the Tot Tube and the ABC pop-up board sent student interest and participation soaring, and turned therapy goals into something that felt like play. Kids practiced turn-taking, fine motor skills, and spontaneous social speech, without it ever feeling like work. Best of all, the tools didn’t stay locked in the therapy room. They were shared with general education teachers, too, so students with IEPs and those getting extra support through MTSS all had what they needed to succeed.

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Down the hall in speech, Shelley Dahl saw the same spark. Her students reach for these materials again and again, and that engagement is the whole point: when sessions are fun, the real work gets easier. Play lowers the pressure. It’s easier to talk as a character or an animal, or to be the one giving the directions, than to be put on the spot.

One session said it all. After building animal characters with a student, Shelley turned the table into a pizza shop. Using AAC vocabulary, the student took orders, asked the animals questions, and placed their own, turning functional language into a game that was fun, memorable, and entirely their own. That’s speech therapy at its best: a child practicing the exact skills they need, and just feeling like they’re playing.

Together, these tools reached dozens of students across preschool through fifth grade, and they’ll keep working for years to come. The therapists made sure families and staff knew where everything came from, labeling these materials so the community could see the support behind them.

And that’s the heart of it. The community gave its students the tools to take part, to be heard, and to belong right alongside their classmates. A girl uncovered her ears and used both hands. A child found their voice running a pretend pizza shop. None of it was an accident. It was a neighborhood deciding that every kid deserves a way in. That is what support looks like up close.

This is Grants in Action: Giving every student the tools to take part, find their voice, and belong.