School of the Week is a student life series featuring Coppell ISD campuses. Richard Lee Elementary School held its annual Spring Book Fair from Feb. 7-13. Through partnership with the Scholastic Book Fair, Lee Elementary provides hundreds of books and products from posters to mini diaries. Through e-wallet and wish lists provide students more options to make their purchase.
It is that time of the year again for Lee Elementary. Its library, the central hub of the campus, transforms into a mini bookstore. The shelves form a half circle, filled with the newest books and gadgets through partnership with the Scholastic Book Fair available for students to purchase.
One can find books of every genre for every reading level: comic, nonfiction, fiction, science, comedy, sports and historical books for kids. Not only books are available, students can find items including Dog Man 3D erasers, squishies, unicorn mini diaries, posters and classic stationery such as pencils, pens and bookmarks.
“The book fair is very detailed – they have a lot of variety,” Lee Elementary fifth grader Uma Hardikar said. “The book fairs where I came from just set up a bunch of long tables and put stacks of books on it and that’s it. It’s kind of a big thing here. It’s basically a friendly competition where everyone is showing off what each other got like ‘I got this’ or ‘I got that.”
The annual Spring Book Fair is a combination of efforts by Lee Elementary librarian Holly Stout, the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and Scholastic Book Fair to bring it to fruition every year. Tracking data from the previous year’s sales, Scholastic sends products according to consumers’ preferences. Teachers can also request specific content that aligns with their classroom reading goals.
Although book fairs have been around for decades, new technology makes it easier for students to make their purchases. Rather than coming to school with physical cash, parents can now use E-Wallet: a digital way to put money in their student(s) accounts. This allows purchases without bringing extra materials to school or carrying around money at risk of losing it.
Students can also form a wishlist, in which they can put their wants from the book fair into a note that parents can later check when picked up. This allows students to make purchases without having the necessary funds for it at that moment.
The book fair is an opportunity for students to exercise their independence to make their own purchases. The process is simple: find items you want to buy, budget yourself and then go to the cashier to check out. Students get to have real world experience through this process.
“Book fairs allow students to be independent thinkers, to decide what stuff they want to buy with their money,” Stout said. “They get to pick out their own things here and walk up to the cash register to pay, just like in the real world.”
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