January 5-11, 2025
Happy New Year, Cannon families!
It's a time to cherish the memories of the first semester, embrace the lessons it taught us, and welcome the opportunities that lie ahead. The arrival of 2025 brings with it fresh beginnings and endless possibilities, making it the perfect occasion to connect with loved ones and share heartfelt messages of love, hope, and joy. I'd like to celebrate our staff for their dedication and love for all of our wonderful Cubs! Our faculty go above and beyond each day to support and grow your students with great care. As we enter the spring semester, please stay in contact with your teacher(s) to ensure your scholar ends the 2024-2025 school year strong.
We had so many wonderful events to celebrate the winter holidays prior to our break! Our amazing Cannon Choir, led by Ms. Jenny Rios, performed at our annual Christmas Choir Concert with great spirit and joy for their families to enjoy! The Cross Timbers Middle School Theatre Productions Troupe performed "Holiday Island", a student created and directed performance, for our Cubs, and they loved it! Our Cubs also had a real world application of financial literacy by shopping at the "Penguin Patch"! Please help me give a huge shout out to our counselor, Mandy Coburn, Applied STEM teacher Heather Hagar, our STEMbassadors, our librarian Kyleigh Whitsell, and parent volunteers for facilitating this wonderful opportunity for our scholars. They had a great time shopping for their loved ones!
We would also like to extend a huge, heartfelt thanks for all the donations to support our Cannon community! Because of your generous donations, we supported our Cannon Angel Tree food, clothes, and toy needs, including clothes donations from Living Word Lutheran Church and $1,000 worth of Rack Room shoe donations. Thank you for your love and support for all of our Cannon families! I'd also like to extend great gratitude to Mandy Coburn, our campus counselor, for organizing this tremendous gift for our families!
Congratulations to our Kindergarten and first grade STEM Habit of Mind Hall of Fame Inductees for Communicating Clearly! STEM teaching and learning is an instructional approach to learning and development that integrates the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Through STEM education practices, students develop key skills including: problem solving, creativity, and critical analysis. We are PROUD to honor our scholars for exhibiting STEM thinking, and we can't wait to celebrate our next group of inductees this Friday.
Our STEMtastic Staff Superstar Spotlight for this month goes to Mrs. Heather Hagar!
Mrs. Heather Hagar will join our fifth-grade Special Services team, at Cannon, for the remainder of this school year. Mrs. Hagar is a vital member of our professional Cannon teaching team and is excited to jump in to support our Cubs! She will continue to lead our First Lego League members and STEMbassadors. While Mrs. Hagar works with our fifth-grade Special Services team, a long-term certified teaching substitute, Ms. Simmons, will facilitate learning in Applied STEM for the remainder of this school year.
On Friday, we will celebrate our Cubs first semester growth at our "Glow in the Dark" middle of year pep rally. We ask that our scholars wear glow in the dark clothing, head bands, and/or wrist bands. Glow in the dark face paint is permitted, but please do not send glow sticks of any kind. We look forward to celebrating their "Glows" and creating goals for growth to end the year strong.
Our January PTA Principal Coffee is this Friday, January 10, at 9:15 am in our Cannon Cafe; I hope to see you there!
As always, thank you for your parent partnership!
Proud to be your principal,
Dr. Tina Garrett
Reflections has been a staple arts program in many schools for over 50 years. Through the efforts of our Local PTAs, millions of students have found a creative outlet in the areas of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts.
With positive recognition as the focus of this program, rather than competition, students of all ages and abilities can experience the benefits of creative expression and help in finding their own voice in telling their unique story.
Started in 1969 by Mary Lou Anderson, then Colorado PTA President, Reflections has grown to be one of the largest nationwide programs of its kind, with more than 200,000 students participating annually.
Please help me congratulate our Cannon PTA Reflections District Winners!
Faith Coleman-Fernandez Visual Arts -"I am" Honorable mention
Olivia Ramirez Photography - "Soccer Dreams" Honorable Mention
Savannah Moreland Dance Choreography - "How Far I'll Go" from Moana Award of Merit
Ivy Lin Literature - "Accepting Imperfection" Award of Merit
Emilia Moreland Visual Arts "The School Paper" Award of Excellence
Ellis Henderson Literature "Howdy Oklahoma" Award of Excellence Advancing to State!
January 6-10 National School Counseling Week - Show Mrs. Coburn some LOVE!
Wednesday, January 8 - š¾Cubs Return to school!šPlease remind parents to send students in sneakers - especially on PE days! Also, please make sure to label coats and jackets with your students' name.
Wednesday, January 8 - Report Card 2 Posts in Skyward ; Progress Reports will be available in Skyward this week. To view your studentās progress report, please follow the instructions below:
Visit www.GCISD.net and click āQuick Linksā at the top of the page
Click the Skyward icon and the āLog In Hereā box in the middle of the page
Click āProgress Reports/Report Cardsā on the menu to the left
Choose 2024-2025 Report Card 2ā
Thursday, January 9 - Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
Friday, January 10 - š¾Wear your Cannon Cub Spirit Gear! ā®ā„š» OR GLOW GEAR!
We will host our Middle of Year Glow Pep Rally for our scholars on Friday, January 10th! Students are welcome to wear glow in the dark clothes, headbands, wristbands, and/or make up, but please do not send glow sticks.
Friday, January 10 - š§¢$1 Hats off to Learning; š¤ Students may pay $1.00 to wear a hat on this day. All proceeds go to decreasing overall grade level costs for field trip experiences.
Friday, January 10 - PTA Principal Coffee 9:15-10:00
Friday, January 17 - š¾Wear your Cannon Cub Spirit Gear! ā®ā„š»
Monday, January 20 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - No school for students and staff.
Thursday, January 23 - STAAR Interim Testing - Closed Campus
*Please ensure your scholar has their charged district device and charger, water bottle, and snack each day of testing.
Friday, January 24 - š¾Wear your Cannon Cub Spirit Gear! ā®ā„š»
Friday, January 24 - CAN PTA Movie & Meeting Night - 6:30-8:30
*Camp Information Fair Included
Monday, January 27 - Cannon CEC Meeting - 3:30-4:30
Tuesday, January 28 - STAAR Interim Testing - Closed Campus
*Please ensure your scholar has their charged district device and charger, water bottle, and snack each day of testing.
Wednesday, January 29 - STAAR Interim Testing - Closed Campus
*Please ensure your scholar has their charged district device and charger, water bottle, and snack each day of testing.
Friday, January 31 - šµ100th Day of School - Show your age!
Greetings,
We hope this finds you doing well and getting ready for the holidays!
We are emailing you today regarding our annual STEAM Carnival in hopes that you will share this exciting opportunity with your students. Every year we host the three-day event here at ESC Region 11, where students can create a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, or Math project and share it with other students. Participating showcase students will have one day to present and explain their projects to over one thousand students who will pass through the Student Showcase Zone each day during our STEAM Carnival. Any showcase nomination that is accepted, will receive six free tickets to attend the STEAM Carnival, lunch for showcase participants, and exclusive Midway time!
Sounds good, but when will this take place?
The Steam Carnival will take place on March 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The last day of the Carnival will be extra special this year as we are expecting not only our Region 11 superintendents, but representatives from the Texas Education Agency to be in attendance. We would love to include an invite to Career and Technical Education students to present their showcases on Wednesday, March 5th.
Interesting, but how does this work?
Nominations for showcases begin with completing the STEAM Carnival Student Showcase Submission Form and then submitting it to the Showcase Committee. We will accept nominations now until Friday, February 14th. If your studentsā showcase is selected, you will receive a confirmation email with further details no later than Wednesday, February 19th.
What would make a good Student Showcase?
In the past, we have had kindergarten students present their homemade kaleidoscopes, middle school students launching catapults, and high school students who are National Champions in F1 and Solar Car racing---the possibilities are endless! Drones! Esports! Robots! Plants! There are so many great ideas!!! We do recommend that showcases have as much interaction as possible with our attendees to enhance the Carnival experience for everyone.
Thatās awesome, but what can I expect during the Student Showcase?
For showcase students, the day is broken down into two parts. The first part of the day will be spent showcasing the projects to the students across the region who will be attending the Carnival. Attendees will arrive throughout the day at scheduled times between 8:45 and 11:15. The final group of attendees will go into the Midway at 11:15, marking the second part of the day: the breakdown of the student showcases. During this time, we will provide lunch (two slices of pizza and a bottle of water) for each student showcase member. All showcase students will enter the Midway at 12:00, the Warehouse Zone at 12:45, and the self-paced Final Act at 1:30. This schedule will allow exclusive time for our showcase students to get the complete Carnival experience, load up, and return to campus.
OK, but I still have questions.
Please feel free to contact Kellye Irvin or Tom Call for any questions not answered on the website or in this email.
We hope to hear from you soon!
Thank you and have a great day!
Kellye Irvin
Digital Resources Support Specialist
O: 817-740-7619
Tom Call
Director of MIS
O: 817-740-7704
Nominate a Deserving Employee for Stars of GCISD
Do you know a GCISD employee who goes above and beyond for students and staff? Nominate them for the Stars of GCISD program! Every nomination is also shared with the nomineeās supervisor and they are entered for a chance to be honored as the districtās Star of GCISD! Submit your nomination now at www.gcisd.net/starsofgcisd.
Cannon Elementary: A GCISD STEM School
Email: tina.garrett@gcisd.net
Website: https://can.gcisd.net/
Location: Cannon Elementary School, West College Street, Grapevine, TX, USA
Phone: 817-251-5680
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cannonSTEM/
Twitter: @canSTEM