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Fairview Marguerite Elementary School unveiled a book vending machine to help increase students’ love for reading.

Principal Eric Langhans explained that with the vending machine the school wanted to help students score higher on standardized tests and give them more access to books.

“We have always wanted our students to love learning and love reading,” Langhans said, “Research says that if students spend 20 minutes reading a night, they will be exposed to 1.8 million words per year and are more likely to score in the 90 percentile on standardized tests.”

“For many of the students in our county access to books of their own is limited, which makes reading at night more difficult.”

Although a book vending machine sounds like a dream, the school sprang into action to make that dream a reality.

“We had seen that other schools had purchased a ‘Book Vending Machine’ and that it had been a huge motivator for students and student growth in literacy,” Langhans said.

“We decided to purchase the vending machine from Global Vending Group. The local Books a Million hosted a book drive at the beginning of the year and donated over $2,000 worth of books. That is how we stocked our book vending machine.”

The school hopes that the machine will entice students to be well behaved in hopes of receiving a book.

“Our goal is that students will be motivated to model great behavior, leadership and work ethic,” Langhans said. “Students earn tokens by their teachers or another staff member by going over and beyond and being a model Wildcat.”

The process of the machine is very simple. Students insert a coin into the machine, they select the book that they like and then push the corresponding number. The book falls down just like a snack out of a vending machine.

“The machine talks’ to the student to encourage them to ‘keep up the great work.’” Langhans said. “It is such an exciting moment for the student and the rest of the class as they receive their books.”

Both students and staff have found excitement from the vending machine.

“Our students and staff love the machine,” Langhans said. “We are so excited about how the Book Vending Machine is motivating our students to be better readers and leaders.”

“We have had several students check out the selection of books in the machine every morning on their way to the gym. A few of our staff members have used Scholastic Book Club points from their classroom to purchase more books for the machine.”

Although the book vending machine is a great asset to further students’ desire to read, the school is working with new programs to help their kids more.

“We are planning a school Family Literacy Night this spring to include parents in their children’s education,” Langhans said.

“We have just started a Reading Buddies program with community volunteers. These volunteers are ‘buddied’ with a student who would benefit from a positive relationship. They spend time together getting to know one another, reading, and doing art projects together.”