Upcoming!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

2/05	Wear Red to School to support American Heart Assoc.
2/11	Principal's Coffee - 8:00-9:00 Cannon Library
2/12	Class Valentine's Day parties
2/15	Student Holiday - Professional Learning Day for teachers
2/19	Cannon Talent Show - 6:00 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5th IS WEAR RED DAY! Friday, February 5th has been designated by our district as WEAR RED DAY, in support of the American Heart Association.  Please support this effort by sending your child to school wearing RED!! We want people to experience more of life's precious moments and so does the American Heart Association!  Let's bring awareness to this important cause by wearing RED!! 

PRINCIPAL'S COFFEE - MARK YOUR CALENDAR! I will be hosting a Principal's Coffee each month, beginning in February.  The first one is scheduled on Thursday, February 11th, from 8:00-9:00 and it will be held in the Cannon Library.  At each of these Principal's Coffees, parents are invited to attend, in order to hear updates about GCISD & Cannon Elementary and learn information that has a direct impact on our school community!  I am really looking forward to these informal opportunities to share important information with families and engage in conversation with you about ways to improve our school! 

DISTRICT TOURS @CANNON LAST WEEK!  If your child came home telling you "there were a lot of people walking through their classrooms" last week, they were correct!!  Since beginning our STEM program at Cannon, we frequently get requests from other school districts to come tour our campus.  Many of these school districts are exploring the opportunity of implementing STEM at the elementary level, so they bring groups of educators out to tour our school and learn more about our program.  Last week, we hosted groups from Burleson ISD, Denton ISD, and Dallas ISD.  Without fail, the educators in these groups left with high praise for the innovative & creative work our Cannon staff and students are doing!!  Later this month, Dr. Ryan, GCISD's superintendent, will be hosting another tour at Cannon with a community group known as Leadership Colleyville. This group of community leaders will spend their day learning all about educational opportunities in GCISD.  The Leadership Grapevine group also visited our campus in the fall.  Finally, beginning next month, we will host several dates for parent tours, for any parents who are interested in seeing our campus and learning more about learning through STEM.  If you have a friend or family member who is interested in learning more about Cannon's STEM program, let us know and we will schedule a time for them to visit!! 

DISTRICT COMMITTEE FINALIZES WORK ON POTENTIAL BOND PROPOSAL Since last July, a committee of community members & GCISD employees have worked together on a FIRST (Facility Innovation & Readiness Stakeholder Team) committee to study and prioritize ways to create the best possible learning environment for GCISD students and research the possibility of calling for a bond election in May, 2016. GCISD has not called a bond election, but with the work of this team, a proposal has been developed and will be presented to the GCISD School Board in February.  If the bond proposal is approved and the School Board calls a bond election for May, 2016, there are a number of projects on the proposal list that will not only benefit all students and schools in GCISD, but specifically Cannon Elementary, in that one of the proposed projects calls for a building a new campus for Cannon Elementary!  I will be including information in all future newsletter about the progress of the FIRST committee and the status of a possible bond election.  Additionally, I will be hosting Principal's Coffees during the months of February - April to provide more information about this process, the impact on our school community, and answer any questions you may have about this process.  The work of this committee has been very transparent and is available to view on a special website,dedicated to the work of this group.  Transcripts from each committee meeting are available on this website, as well as video from each meeting.   I urge you to check out this website and stay informed about the status of a possible bond election.  Click here to access the FIRST website! 

CANNON'S TALENT SHOW IS COMING SOON!  Cannon's PTA is planning another great talent show to showcase our students' great talent to all of our school families!  The Talent Show is scheduled for Friday, February 19th @ 6:00 pm, so mark your calendars now!  Information will be sent home with all students and it is very important to review all of the rules and schedule for audition/rehearsals before committing yourself and your child to participate in the talent show.  Permission forms were due by Friday, January 15th but will be accepted on   Parents of students auditioning will be sent additional information on Tuesday, January 19th.  In order for the show to go on, the PTA needs parent volunteers to help with the talent show.  Sign up today to volunteer for this fun and creative experience!  

STAY CONNECTED!   HAVE YOU "LIKED" OUR CANNON FACEBOOK PAGE YET? If you haven't already "liked" our Cannon Facebook page, please do so today!  We work hard to provide updates, information, and celebrations on our Cannon page. Click here to see our Cannon Facebook  Also, please follow us on Twitter @canSTEM

New Spelling Words

Spelling Words- Test on Friday (2/5/16)

1.   petty

2.   silly

3.   fifty

4.   handy

5.   plenty

6.   granny

7.   angry

8.   yellow

9.   dry

10.                happy

11.                nasty

12.                merry

Interactive Learning

Subject Matter Experts

Today, we Skyped in with subject matter experts in the field of weather as a review and enrichment for tomorrow's test. 

Brian Bastian's Biography

I am a weather and catastrophe risk management professional with cross-functional experience in technical meteorology, forecasting and remote sensing, reinsurance, analytics, systems and requirements engineering.

In addition to my work experience, I have a passion for educating and teaching kids about weather and climate, and professional development (networking, mentoring, etc.).

I earned my B.S. Meteorology & Weather Risk Management from Penn State University.  I also have a M.Eng. Systems Engineering from Penn State.

Mike Merin's Biography

Hello my name is Mike Merin. I've been interested in Meteorology since junior high school when my Earth Science teacher inspired me to be a part of the field. I graduated from Stony Brook with a BS in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and for the past 5 years I've been working at Metro Weather with Pat Pagano doing a wide variety of jobs from broadcasting on the radio to forensic research for court cases.  Weather has always been my passion and I am always eager to learn more and teach others what I know

Board of Trustees!

JANUARY IS BOARD APPRECIATION MONTH! GCISD School Board Trustees will be recognized at the monthly school board meeting during the January 28th board meeting. This is our creative way of saying thank you. 

Important Science Concepts

Enduring Understandings

Weather Changes

Weather conditions can vary from day to day. Weather conditions can change within a day. We use tools such as rain gauges, windsocks, and thermometers to gather information about weather. We can use charts, tables, and graphs for recording and comparing weather.

The Sun and Water Cycle

• The Sun is our closest star and is composed of gas.
• The sun's heat and light provides energy for the water cycle, warms the earth, and provides sunlight for plants to grow and produce food.
• The Sun is the major source of energy for Earth. The water cycle, winds, ocean currents and growth of plants are affected by the Sun’s energy. Seasons result from varying amounts of the Sun’s energy hitting Earth’s surface.

Sun, Earth, Moon, and Solar System

• Each of the planets in our solar system orbits the Sun and maintains it place in relationship to the Sun and each other.
• The Earth, Moon and Sun interact in ways that affect our planet in fundamental ways.
• Model can be used to represent the Moon orbiting the Earth and the Earth orbiting the Sun.

Solar System Garden Design Challenge

Design Challenge

Real School Gardens has asked Cannon Elementary to expand their learning garden next year that incorporates a system. Since Mr. Parthemore loves the space science so much, he has persuaded Mrs. Blizzard to create a garden plan that models our Solar System. However, it needs to extend off the school’s current learning garden without looking out of place. You are a top landscaper and have been hired by Cannon to create a garden plan for the yard that models the Solar System. Think of different ways to represent the planets and show their sizes and relative locations.  Just remember to use what you learned in class about the size and location of each planet.

Criteria (Must Haves):

• You will need to include the following: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Earth’s Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
• Each planet must be represented by a garden item.
• You must have a blueprint template of your garden plan with labels approved by project manager (Mr. Parthemore).
• The representation of each planet in the solar system must be positioned correctly in relation to the Sun.
• Your scale model of our solar system must include distance from the Sun and size of the planets, and include orbits.  
• Each orbital path must be represented by a stone path.

Restraints (Limited to):

• Groups of 3 or 4
• You may only use the materials given to you to design your plan.
• You may only extend the garden to grassy areas or the pavement by the playground with the basketball hoops. (The school has agreed to rip up that pavement area if they need to.)

Problem Solving

A video I showed in class to discuss problem solving. WARNING: Video contains funny material! May be too inappropriate for serious people!

Science TEST!

Test is next Thursday and Friday (Jan. 28th/29th)! I will send home a study guide tomorrow for the students to review over the weekend. Be sure to ask them about it!

Parthemore Parking

How do I do formative assessment? GREAT QUESTION! Well, here is just one way that I check my students' understanding about the concepts that I teach. This is an exit ticket strategy where they respond in writing on a post-it note and "park it" before they leave. It allows me to know what I need to go back and reteach or how to pull small groups for intervention. 

Writing

Dinosaur Writing

Connecting in to our writing..............

What do you know about dinosaurs?

Write a report to inform your readers about dinosaurs. But there are other genres you can use to show what you know about dinosaurs. You could write a newspaper article about a dinosaur, a journal entry about the day in the life of a dinosaur, or a dinosaur mystery. The trick is that all the dinosaur information has to be true! It will all be added to our DINO News Newspaper.

The challenge:

Pick a genre. Use this genre to show us what you know about dinosaurs. Your writing must include at least three dinosaur facts. They can be about a single dinosaur, or about more than one dinosaur. You might write about dinosaur size, dinosaur diets, how dinosaurs became extinct, or any other dinosaur information you know. You could even do research to find out new information about dinosaurs to include in your writing.