The Cannon Connection

November 30 - December 6 2025

Good morning Cannon families,

We hope all of our families had a relaxing, restful, and truly amazing Thanksgiving break filled with good food, great company, and cherished moments. We are so happy to have our students back in the hallways this Monday ready for an exciting final push to the end of the calendar year!

November concluded with a flurry of engaging and memorable activities that truly brought our community together and showcased the joy of learning at Cannon!

🦃 Turkey Bowling & 67th Day Fun: We kicked off the excitement with a festive round of staff Turkey Bowling, followed by a fun celebration recognizing the 67th Day of School. The energy and laughter were contagious!
👵👴 Amazing Grand Friends Day: Thank you to all the special guests who attended our Grand Friends Day! It was a beautiful occasion filled with connection, warm hugs, and priceless memories that our students will cherish.
🎨 Art Show & Book Fair Success: Creativity was on full display at our student Art Show! We also had a wonderful turnout for the Book Fair, and a big shout-out to everyone who participated in the Penny Wars—winning totals below!
🎈 Pre-K & Kinder Parade: Our youngest learners stole the show with their own delightful take on the New York spectacle: Balloons Over Broadway Parade! Seeing their beaming faces and handmade floats brought countless smiles to everyone watching.

From the first pin knocked down to the last balloon floated, the smiles and laughter this month have been truly priceless!

We want to give a massive THANK YOU and SHOUT OUT to our incredible Staff and dedicated Students in addition to our Student Ambassador Groups - Art Ambassadors, Library Ambassadors, and STEMbassadors for all their hard work in preparing our hallways and classrooms, and for bringing our Cannon STEM mission to life for all of our guests! Their collaboration, creativity, and tireless effort resulted in a truly amazing and inspiring display that has brought so much joy and school spirit to our community. We are so proud of our students, student leaders, and grateful for the commitment of our staff!

The ultimate coin battle has ended! Our PTA Penny Wars officially came to a close last Friday, November 21st, with a roar of excitement and competitive spirit. Our students had an absolute blast strategizing and, of course, sabotaging other grade levels!

A huge congratulations to our winning grades:

🥇 1st Place: 5th Grade
🥈 2nd Place: 4th Grade
🥉 3rd Place: Kindergarten

Thank you to everyone who participated! Your enthusiasm made this fundraiser a fantastic success.

We want to extend a massive thank you to two amazing groups in our community: our dedicated Dads Club and the generous team at Living Word Lutheran Church! They worked closely with our Cannon counselor, Mandy Coburn, to ensure a bountiful Thanksgiving for our Cannon families. They worked together to organize, collect, and deliver much-needed food to our families this past season. Their commitment to service and care truly embodies the spirit of our community. Thank you for your incredible support and kindness!

Congratulations to our PreK, Kinder, and 1st grade STEM Habit of Mind Hall of Fame Inductees for Thoughtful Planning!

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 Friday, December 5th.

If your scholar is selected, your teacher will reach out to you with ceremony details about the specific date and time for each grade's ceremony. We hope you will join us in celebrating our young innovators!

The holiday season is officially here, and we have several exciting community events planned for your participation!

Mark your calendars and get ready to celebrate THIS WEEK with us:

✨Grapevine Main Street Parade of Lights: Thursday, December 4 at 7:00pm - Come out and cheer for our amazing Dads Club! They have been working tirelessly engineering our incredible Cannon Christmas Float. Your support means the world!
🕵🏼‍♀️ Holiday Hats Off to Learning! Friday, December 5: $1 wear a hat 🧑🏻‍🎄- All proceeds go toward reducing field trip costs.
☕PTA Principal Coffee - Friday, December 5, from 8:30-9:30 in our Cannon Cafe
🥞 PTA Santa Breakfast: Don't miss this festive tradition happening this Saturday, December 6! It's a fantastic chance to enjoy breakfast, visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, play games, and enjoy crafts. We look forward to seeing all of our families join in on the fun!

Be sure to check below for our full list of Save the Dates—we have so much more holiday fun planned for the weeks ahead!

Proud to be your principal,

Dr. Tina Garrett

#BeCannonProud ☮️💗🐻

i-Ready Middle of the Year (MOY) Diagnostic Testing December 1-12

Families,

The second i-Ready diagnostic will be given to students in grades K-8 during the first two weeks of December. The specific schedule will be shared by your child’s teacher. As a reminder, i-Ready is an online diagnostic that helps your child’s teacher determine their strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning, and monitor their progress throughout the school year. Results from the diagnostic allow us to meet your child where they are and provide us with data and lessons to support instruction in reading and mathematics. Additionally, it sets your child’s My Path lessons for the spring semester.

Here are a few things you can do to help support your student:

Make sure they get a good night’s rest before taking the online assessment.
Talk to your student about why the assessment is important. You can say things like:

The test will help you find out what you know, what you are ready to learn, and it will help you get “just the right” lessons.
Try your best, and do not rush, but don’t spend too much time on a question that you do not know how to answer.
Remember, questions on the test change based on your answers to earlier questions. You will see some questions you don’t know. That is okay! Just try your best.

Let them know you’re excited to hear about how it goes and to ask them about their experience.

We’re thrilled to partner with you in your student’s learning and can't wait to see their growth and progress from the beginning of the year until now. Teachers will be sending home data on student performance prior to the Winter Break that will show what percentage they are at towards meeting both their target goal for the year and their stretch goal. We can't wait to celebrate with them!

Holiday Food Drive

We are beginning our annual food drive benefitting our own Cannon families for the upcoming holidays. We are collecting non-perishable items from the suggested list provided below. Each grade level will be responsible for specific food items. We will collect food items from November 4th - December 12th. Items should be dropped off in the foyer. Thank you so much for supporting our Cannon community.

Counselor’s Corner

We are looking forward to focusing on GRATITUDE this month! One way to think about Gratitude is “choosing to appreciate the people and things in our lives.” Practicing Gratitude can increase our well-being and our happiness.

At home, you can practice Gratitude by talking about some small, specific things that you are Grateful for. Maybe it's your favorite water cup, the way the cat sleeps on the chair, or when you smell banana bread baking in the kitchen. Spend some time as a family trying to think of at least 10 small things that you have Gratitude for and then choose to notice them this week with a smile.

Contact Mrs. Coburn

If you would like Mrs. Coburn to contact you or check on your student, you can complete the following link: Request to Talk to Counselor

Please be advised: If you make any changes to your Skyward form for Senate Bill 12 (Counseling Services, Health Services, or Club Participation), you must notify the campus support staff either verbally or via email. The Skyward system does not alert staff of resubmissions, so your communication is necessary to ensure your changes are received.

Save the Dates

Monday, December 1 - Students and Staff return!

December 1-12 - 🎯 Middle of the Year iReady Diagnostic Testing Window

Thursday, December 4 - Grapevine Parade of Lights 7:00 pm- Come out to Main Street to Cheer on our award winning Dad's Club! WE can't wait to see their Float Engineering come to LIFE!

Wednesday, December 2 - Progress Report 2 Posts in Skyward; Progress reports will be available in Skyward this week. To view your student’s progress report, please follow the instructions below:

Visit www.GCISD.net and click “Quick Links” at the top of the page
Click the Skyward icon and the “Log In Here” box in the middle of the page
Click “Progress Reports/Report Cards” on the menu to the left
Choose 2025-2026 Report Card 2”

Friday, December 5 - 🕵🏼‍♀️ Hats Off to Learning! $1 wear a hat - All proceeds go toward reducing field trip costs.

Friday, December 5 - ☕PTA Principal Coffee - 8:30-9:30 in our Cannon Cafe

Friday, December 5 - 🐾Cannon Spirit Gear Friday - Wear your Cub Gear!

Saturday, December 6 - PTA Santa Breakfast:

8:30-9:15 - Early access for sensory sensitive families

9:15 - Doors open for all families

9:30-10:00 - Choir Performance

10:00-11:00 - Community Building, Pictures with Santa, Games, Breakfast - so much fun!

Thursday, December 11 - 🍬Kindergarten Candy House Design Challenge 8:30-9:30

Friday, December 12 - 🐝Cannon Spelling Bee

Friday, December 12 - 🐾Cannon Spirit Gear Friday - Wear your Cub Gear!

December 15-17 - Student Holiday Shop -🐧Penguin Patch!

Wednesday, December 17 - Cannon Choir Christmas Concert - 6:30 Cannon Cafe

Thursday, December 18 - Winter Holiday Parties (Parents/guardians with Skyward-approved background checks are welcome to attend and help facilitate games and food stations. More information will be shared from teachers)

Thursday, December 18 - Early Dismissal 11:45

No School for staff or students Friday, December 19

Winter Break: Friday, December 19 - January 6; Students return to school on Wednesday, January 7, 2026

pdf

insert_drive_file

25-26_Instructional_Calendar.pdf

Download

343.0 KB

Do you or someone you know want to be a sponsor?

Cink here -

District Highlights

Referrals for GT/ASPIRE Kindergarten-Fourth Grade

From December 1–15, parents can refer kindergarten–fourth grade students in Skyward for GT/ASPIRE testing.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) Experience

Unlock Your Potential with GCISD CTE! Come discover the incredible opportunities in Career & Technical Education. We'll showcase all middle and high school course options, guide you through our state-of-the art Technology Education and Career Center, provide engaging hands-on experiences, and so much more!

Review the 2025-2026 Student Code of Conduct, Parent Handbook

GCISD is having a successful start to the school year! Please help us keep that momentum going by taking a moment to review with your students the 2025-2026 Student Code of Conduct and 2025-2026 Student Parent-Handbook, which includes dress code and updates from the 89th Legislative Session.

Volunteers and Visitors

We welcome our parents to engage in our events throughout this school year! Any parent attending or supporting an event during the school day must have a cleared background check. That includes field trips, holiday parties, field day, and volunteering on campus during the school day!

Background checks must be completed each year! Click here to learn more: GCISD Volunteer Page

https://apps.raptortech.com/Apply/MjIxOmVuLVVT

We appreciate your interest in volunteering for the District Volunteer Program. Our district offers a variety of activities you may choose from when volunteering your time. Simply complete and submit a volunteer application and upon approval you will receive instructions on next steps.It is very important that the information you enter on the application matches your government issued identification card including your full legal name. It is important that you provide a valid email address so you can be notified as to the status of your application and for future communication. If you are unable to provide an email address, you use the district’s email address. All information collected on the application will remain confidential and not be shared outside the volunteer program. If you have any questions about the application, please request to speak with a volunteer representative. Thank you, District Volunteer Coordinator

apps.raptortech.com