Simple words, letters and numbers are woven throughout the forest design of a new interactive educational area in the Saratoga Library that opened on Saturday.
It is the first completed Storybook Children’s Play Space in the Santa Clara County Library District, part of an initiative to help children 10 and younger build early literacy skills. According to the California Department of Education, 86% of Saratoga Union Elementary students were reading at or above grade level in the 2023-24 school year.
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“We want all children in the county to thrive and walk into kindergarten ready to be those successful learners,” said county librarian Jennifer Weeks. “So we really feel that families need environments in order to help them along.”
The Saratoga play space is themed “Redwood Romp” and features a treehouse and designs of birds and other animals that can be found in other county parks. It includes a marquee entry with child-size doorway, reading nooks and other interactive elements.
Children learn through play, Weeks said, so the play space was designed to “provide play-based learning opportunities in joyful and beautiful environments.” There is a balance exercise in every interactive area to help children practice midline crossing, the ability to move your eyes across the midline of your body. The exercises include hopscotching over turning pages or climbing a bridge, which helps strengthen the right and left hemispheres of the brain to prepare the child’s eyes to read across the page.
Words, numbers and letters are incorporated into seek and find games to improve children’s pre-reading skills, showing them that words and letters have meaning and teaching them number order. There is also an activity where children pick from a set of pictures what they would bring on a camping trip. Weeks said that it is meant to expose the children to storytelling by allowing them to make decisions and interact with adults and other children.
“We’re five years out of the pandemic, but schools have had to have this comeback story of making sure they can engage family, and it’s still been difficult for them,” Weeks said. “It’s still this challenge, even in more of our affluent areas, to make sure that children are getting the support they need.”
Mayor Belal Aftab and Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga were set to attend the grand opening ceremony on Friday. The library also unveiled TreeBot, the play space’s mascot, who will serve as a guide for its users.
County libraries in Morgan Hill, Cupertino and Gilroy will also be unveiling Storybook Play Spaces in the coming months.
