Good morning Cannon families,

At Cannon, we strive for greatness above and beyond academics! Our four core STEM pillars include Curriculum, Culture, Community, and College, Career, Military, Readiness. We teach the state required TEKS, and use the district curriculum, but our teachers design engaging cross curricular challenges with real world applications using the Engineering Design Process. These memorable experiences are focused on enhancing critical thinking and problem solving at a high cognitive level with our scholars.

It's always exciting to see engineered artifacts from home come together as a Kindergarten through fifth grade display for our STEM book challenges! They are rolling in and settling nicely in our "Under Water" Learning Commons! Plan with your scholar, use reusable or recycle materials around your home, and engineer an artifact to contribute to our Cannon "Over and Under the Waves" Home to School Engineering Design Display ( Fall STEM Design Challenge )!

Congratulations to our kindergarten &1st grade STEM Habit of Mind Hall of Fame Inductees for Questioning and Posing Problems! 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.

Congratulations Kate Miller from Kindergarten and Faith Coleman Fernandez from 1st grade! Both Cubs received Honorable Mention for the Butterfly Flutterby art contest!

All the Cannon students that participated will have their art on display this Saturday at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens and then Faith and Kate will have their art on display at the rec center until Thanksgiving.

We are very PROUD of our amazing school community and we have so much to celebrate! If you haven't had a chance to read the Dad's Club Walk and Roll spotlight, please do!

Our STEMtastic work is innovative and we are thrilled to share our partnership with CompTia Spark! Last year, we began working with this technology company to use and provide feedback for a middle school computer science curriculum. Mrs. Hagar, our Applied STEM teacher, implemented this middle school curriculum with our fifth graders. Our Scholars had a blast, and we are incredibly proud to share - CHECK IT OUT!

As always, thank you for your parent partnership!

Proud to be your principal,

Dr. Tina Garrett

The Online Literati Book Fair is coming! Join us for an intergalactic adventure starting tomorrow, October 21, at https://literati.com/store/?school=cannon-elementary-school-grapevine-tx. Every purchase benefits our school. We will still be having a traditional book fair in November, but this online version is a head start!

October: Parent Conferences; Be on the lookout for communication from your teacher(s)!

October - Down Syndrome Awareness & Bullying Prevention Month

October 14 - November 4 - GT and ASPIRE referral window for 5th grade ; For more information on the GT identification timeline, click here.

October 15-October 25: Fall STEM Design Challenge Home to School Artifact; Build your model and planning sheet. Bring them to school!

October 21- November 2 - Early Voting

Friday, October 25 - 50th Day of School! Dress in your coolest Fifties gear 🐩🧥 or your Cannon Spirit Gear

October 28-November 1 - National Red Ribbon Week (See below for more details)

Friday, November 1 - 4th Annual STEMapalooza; Make sure to wear Cannon Cub Spirit Gear!

We will celebrate our PTA Calendar Fundraiser Leaders at 2:30 with silly string parties and our 4th grade teacher team will PIE Dr. Garrett, Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Coburn, and Mrs. Paniagua! Parents students in participating classes, with an approved background check, may attend to watch the fun!

Saturday, November 2 - Walk Like MADD Event; Our safety partners have shared this flyer about an upcoming Mothers Against Drunk Driving event on November 2. They have a Grapevine Police Department team that is walking in honor of Officer Darren Medlin who was lost to a drunk driver. This is a family friendly event, with vendors and activities at the start/finish line area. It’s a walk, not a race, so all fitness levels can participate.

Sunday, November 3 - Father of Texas Day; This day recognizes Stephen F. Austin as the “Father of Texas”. We celebrate and remember him today - a great pioneer patriot and the Father of Texas.

Sunday, November 3 - Daylight Savings - Fall BACK One Hour

Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5 - Staff Professional Development - No School for Students

Tuesday, November 5 - Election Day

Wednesday, November 6 - PTA Reflections (See Below) Submissions Due: HERE

Friday, November 8 - ☕ PTA Principal Coffee 9:15-10 Cannon Cafe

Friday, November 8 - 🧢$1 Hats off to Learning;🤠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. We raised approximately $60 on our last Hats off to Learning Day; Thank you for helping us lower field trip costs!

Monday, November 11-Wednesday, November 14 -🏕5th grade to Sky Ranch

Monday, November 11- Veterans' Day Performance 2:00 Cannon Cafe; Our 2nd graders will perform for their families and any Cannon Community Veteran wishing to attend! Pre-registration link HERE.

Friday, November 15 - Wear your Cannon Cub Spirit Gear! ☮♥🐻

Monday, November 18 - Cannon Campus Excellence Committee Meeting 3:30-4:30

Tuesday, November 19 - Picture Retake/Make Up Day

Friday, November 22 - Wear your Cannon Cub Spirit Gear! ☮♥🐻

Friday, November 22 - Cannon's Annual Grand Friend's Day 8:30-10:30; Pre- Register HERE if your grandfriend plans to attend!

November 25-November 29 - Thanksgiving Holiday Break!

Signing up for the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) does NOT mean you are signing up to volunteer; it means you support our school community by being a member! Please sign up!

On November 1st, after STEMapalooza, at 2:30, we will have a school assembly outside to watch the 4th-grade teachers PIE the Admin Team and then cheer on the classes that get to silly string one another!

*Parents of participating classes, with background checks, are welcome to attend and watch the silly string parties! See the link below to complete your background check.

Did you know that the voter-approved tax ratification election (VATRE) isn’t unique to GCISD? In fact, several school districts across Texas have a VATRE on their ballot this November. For GCISD, the VATRE will be Proposition A on the November 5 ballot. Watch this video to see how no increase to public school funding since 2019 is affecting districts across the state and learn more about the three golden pennies proposed in the GCISD VATRE.

Understanding the Ballot Language for Proposition A

The Texas Tax Code provides mandatory ballot language for GCISD’s Proposition A, the voter-approved tax ratification election, but what does it mean?

• The TOTAL tax rate of $0.9233 is $0.0014 less than the previous year.

• The increase of 1.08% references the increase to ONLY the M&O rate (from $0.7290 in 2023 to $0.7369 in 2024)

• $1,513,042 represents the difference in the tax collections from the $0.7290 M&O rate to $0.7369.

Hear GCISD Chief Financial Officer Derick Sibley explain it by watching this segment of the recent Facebook Live presentation about the VATRE.

If possible, please insert this graphic of the sample ballot here.

Know Before You Go: Early Voting Starts October 21

Early voting will begin Monday, October 21, and continue through Friday, November 1. Tarrant County registered voters can vote at any Vote Center location during Early Voting and on Election Day.

Early Voting Hours

• Schedule and locations

Election Day - November 5

• Find Your Election Day Vote Center Locations by Zip Code

GCISD’s Nutrition Services is pleased to announce that parents can now download the MySchoolBucks app to make online prepayments on their child’s school meal account and view transactions. There is a $3.25 processing fee for each transaction.

After downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play on their mobile device, parents will need the following to establish an account:

• Visa, Mastercard or Discover credit cards

• Child’s six- or seven-digit student ID number

Transactions made prior to 10 a.m. will be posted to the meal account the same day. Prepayments made after 10 a.m. will be posted the next school day.

Although the online option is available, parents will still continue to have the option to pay at their child’s school using cash or via check. There is no processing fee for payments at school.

If you need assistance with the meal account, please call GCISD Nutrition Services at 817-251-5617 or send an email to child.nutrition@gcisd.net.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

Free and Reduced-Priced Meal Applications Are Still Accepted

Every dollar counts and if you qualify for free and reduced meals for your child, there is still time to complete an application. Applications are available at www.schoollunchapp.com and can be completed at any time during the school year. The sooner the application is completed and if you qualify, the sooner your child can begin to receive meals at the free or reduced price.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

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. Background checks must be completed each year!

Get a jumpstart and complete your background check today! Apply Online

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