Primary’s book vending machine first in county
Yocum Primary students got a new reason to look forward to Fridays recently, when the school’s new book vending machine was installed.
Six children got a chance to “buy” their first books from the machine on Dec. 2, and every Friday going forward, students who earn special tokens in class will get to visit the machine to pick out a book for themselves.
“It’s so great. There are so many books. I want one at my house,” first-grader Koree Barnes said at a ribbon cutting for the new machine.
Taylon Steele, director of communications for the El Dorado School District, said the machine was purchased with grant funds.
“Ms. (Ashley) Collinsworth (Yocum Primary literacy facilitator) saw the vending machine – she saw another school had it – and she was like, ‘I want that for our kids.’ She sent it to Ms. (Jeannie) Strother (district literacy chair) and asked what they needed to do to get it here, and Ms. Strother helped her get the grant,” Steele explained.
But they didn’t get just any book vending machine – their grant allowed them to purchase a custom model, decked out in Yocum Primary gold and navy, with the school’s logo on one side and the Yocum bear mascot over the phrase “Let me hear you GROWL” – GROWL being an acronym standing for Growing Readers Opens Windows to Learning – on the other.
“We are the first school to have a book vending machine in Union County and only one of three in south Arkansas,” said Yocum Primary Principal Kristen Thomas. “What’s special about Yocum’s is ours is customized with our Yocum colors and mascot. There are only 10 customized machines in the state.”
The machine, which is for Yocum Primary’s Kindergarten and firstgrade students, is stocked with early-reader books, Steele said.
“By the end of the year, our goal is to give out 200 books from the machine,” she added.
The first six students to get a chance to pick a book were Students of the Month from throughout the school year. Going forward, each week, every teacher at Yocum Primary will be able to give out a token to one student in their class who demonstrates the best behavior and follows the “Bears Way.”
The Bears Way is a behavior-pathway that students at Yocum are asked to follow. BEARS is an acronym too – it stands for Be Responsible; Empathy; Achieving; Respectful; Showing Citizenship.
“I like the book machine. You have to follow the Bears Way to get a coin, so I really like it,” said Jakhia Alford, another first-grader at Yocum Primary.
Collinsworth said the goal for the book vending machine is to encourage reading.
“Any way to get books into our students’ hands, we want to do that,” she said. “I like that they can take the book home and it’s theirs.”
“It’s so great! There are so many books.”
— Yocum Primary first-grader Koree Barnes