OAKLAND — Early last month, while Markham Elementary was on winter break, thieves broke into Nikita Gibbs’ third-grade class and stole about 40 brand-new, still-in-the-box Amazon Fire tablets — a donation from a local law firm.

The tablets may retail for around $50 a piece, but to Gibbs’ third-grade class, they were invaluable. That’s because around 70 percent of the class reads below grade level, and 17 of the 25 students are English learners. Those tablets would have allowed students to download apps to help them with their reading, as well as lower-level textbooks. The students could even read books suitable for younger children and not be embarrassed to be seen with them.

After news broke of the theft, Amazon got in touch with Oakland Unified spokesman John Sasaki and offered to replace the tablets for Gibbs’ class and the other third-grade class at Markham. On Wednesday afternoon, the students came back to their classroom from lunch to find brand-new Fire tablets on their desks.

The students lit up with excitement, grinning from ear to ear and ripping apart the packaging like Christmas gifts.

“This is the best birthday present ever,” said 9-year-old Etasha McLauria, whose birthday was a few days away.

“It’s so cool, I could use it to read and learn stuff and we could also watch movies on it,” said Henry Garcia, 8.

Local and national data indicates that students who fall behind in literacy skills by the end of first grade rarely catch up, former Kenneth Rainin Foundation director of education, strategy and ventures Susan True said in a 2017 interview.

Gibbs said students are expected to learn crucial reading skills by second grade, and go into third grade ready to apply those skills. Many of her students over the years, however, came to third grade without a firm grasp of those skills, and end up having a tough time, she said.

“I’ve been trying to figure out ways to actually reach those kids. It’s really a critical point, because it just gets harder and harder after third grade,” she said.

Gibbs said she believes the tablets could be a game-changer for some of her students.

“They’re really connected to technology right now; a lot of them have cell phones or something at home,” Gibbs said. “This is a good way to engage those kids who are at a lower reading level without having to give them a baby book.”