Washington Elementary School raising funds for book vending machine program
SAULT STE. MARIE — Washington Elementary School is raising money for a new program to help students increase their literacy skills.
The book vending machine program will give kindergarten and first grade students easy and free access to books that will help them practice their reading.
"Inchy's Bookworm Vending Machine" is a program that has been implemented in many schools in the U.S. It works like a regular vending machine, except instead of paying money for snacks, kids can purchase books with good behavior.
As part of a behavior incentives program that Washington Elementary is implementing, students can earn tokens for their good behavior. The idea is that rewarding students for good behavior is more effective than punishing them for bad behavior.
When a student goes out of their way to help other students, clean up after themselves and others or other good behaviors, they can earn good behavior tokens. Student will be able to use these tokens to buy books straight from the machine and take them home.
In this way, students are not just exposed to literature at school, but can also build up their own personal libraries at home.
"There are so many studies that show that being exposed to literacy young in life correlates to higher income as adults," said Jesselyn Bourque, the intervention specialist at Washington Elementary who is in charge of the behavior incentive program. "In middle income neighborhoods, the ratio of books to children is 13 books for one child, in low income communities the ratio is one book for every 300 children. So a lot of children aren't exposed to literacy and if you're not exposed to literacy you aren't going to learn."
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The machine will be filled with books appropriate for the age group of Washington Elementary's kindergarten and first grade students. Teachers will also be able to add books that have been popular in their classrooms.
The program is relying mostly on donations to meet the $6,000 requirement to bring in the machine and fill it with its first set of books.
"We're very appreciative for some of the community members and businesses that have already contributed and we're really excited for this," said Washington Elementary Principal Sheri McFarlane.
If the school receives the donations it needs, the vending machine will be implemented in the school in the second semester of the upcoming school year.
"The reasoning behind all of this is getting books into the kids' hands in a positive way. There are so many children who don't have access to books because their families struggle ... so we are wanting to get books in and ultimately foster a love of reading and learning," said Bouroque.
Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Book vending machine to be introduced to Sault's Washington Elementary
