by Dennis Dalman
Eager students at Pine Meadow Primary School love to feed the “Bookworm.”
The first- and second-graders put a golden token into a big vending machine and – presto! – out pops a book they can keep as their very own.
“It’s a fun and exciting way to engage kids in reading,” said Pine Meadow Principal Sara Nelson. “The kids just love that machine.”
The book vending machine is located right inside the school’s front doors. It holds 19 books, each with a different story, and a total of 300 books of those 19 kinds. They include picture books and storybooks, all of them created to inspire children with a love of learning how to read. Pine Meadow students are just now starting to master the basics of reading.
Nelson explained how students earn tokens for the book machine:
On the side of the vending machine are the words “Be Sabre Strong” – a nod to Sabres’ shield that is the St. Stephen-Sartell School District’s logo. At Pine Meadow, students are encouraged to become “Sabre Safe, Sabre Respectful and Sabre Engaged.”
The first- and second-graders whose behaviors demonstrate those qualities are recognized throughout the school. Their names and classroom numbers are written on tickets, and the tickets are then placed in what is called the “Ticket Tower.” And then, every Friday, 12 of the tickets are drawn at random from the tower. Each ticket has a message on it: “Feed the Bookworm.”
The safe, respectful and engaged children whose tickets are drawn, then each receive a gold-colored coin they may use to “feed the bookworm.”
The vending machine was made in New York and sent to Pine Meadow, thanks to a grant of $2,500 from the Sartell-St. Stephen Education Foundation. Another amount, $225, was donated by the Parents Teacher Organization for grades pre-K through five. Funds to replenish the books in the machine come from the Scholastic Book Fair dollars and other sources.
This year, there are 562 students enrolled at Pine Meadow, almost all of them ages 6 and 7. There are 25 classroom teachers in the school. This is Sara Nelson’s ninth year as principal of Pine Meadow Primary School.
Pine Meadow Primary School students line up to feed the “Bookworm,” a book vending machine into which students slide a token and out pops a book for each student to keep.
These are the opening pages of a storybook called “What If You Had an Animal Tail,” one of the books in a book vending machine for students at Pine Meadow Primary School in Sartell. Students love to put token in the machine to receive the fun books they can keep.
