Education Grant WinnerAmanda Combs

Collaboration is a key element to instill in students at a young age. Working together in a play-based learning environment allows children to refine their motor skills, expand on their creativity, and sharpen their problem-solving abilities—and all of this can be accomplished simply through having fun with gadgets and toys!

Amanda Combs, educator at Kallison Elementary, wanted to provide some learning toys for her students, who would have so much fun playing with them that they don’t even realize they’re garnering skills that would help them down the road. Thanks to Power of the Dollar® members, she was awarded a $1,000 grant in December 2025 for her “We ‘AIR’ Having a ‘TOOBZ’-ular Time” project idea, which she then used the grant funds to purchase Air Toobz!

“I follow a lot of toys of the year, and a lot of our class is learning through play because we’re an early childhood collaboration classroom,” said Combs. “So, there’s now worksheets or anything like that—it’s all hands-on learning. When I saw the Air Toobz, we had to have that in our block area because it allows the kids to be able to maneuver and build and collaborate with their peers to build super cool stuff.”

Air Toobz gives students the opportunity to arrange the tubes in multiple different ways, and it encourages them to think outside-of-the-box. This is where that collaboration comes to the forefront. With the tubes, they work alongside one another to brainstorm methods toward achieving their end goal. Ms. Combs sees a huge improvement in her students’ productivity, but also their willingness to share with their classmates. It’s a wonderful play-based toy set that has become all the rage in Ms. Combs’ classroom!

“It’s one of those activities where they never get tired of it,” she said. “They always want to go to the block area. There’s always a super long wait for the waitlist. I see a lot more collaborating than fighting over toys with this one because there’s so much for them to do. At this age they tend to fight a lot, but with this, they don’t. They love it, and I feel like they don’t realize they’re learning so much because they’re having so much fun doing it, which is what this classroom is all about!”