CANNON CONNECTION
A newsletter for Cannon Elementary families - 2018-2019
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 26, 2018
Hi Cannon Parents!
I hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday break! We look forward to welcoming all of our Cubs back to school on Monday, November 26th!
This newsletter has an updated calendar of many upcoming school events through December, so be sure to make note of these activities and include them on your busy holiday calendars! Be sure to check out the information in this newsletter about opportunities to get involved with some great Cannon holiday traditions, including helping to build (and allow your child to ride!) the Cannon holiday float with our Cannon Dad's Club; volunteering to work in the Cannon Santa Shop and participating in our fun Breakfast with Santa event! We are SO grateful for all of our Cannon PTA and parent volunteers who work so tirelessly to provide so many wonderful opportunities for our Cannon school community! Thank you for ALL you do to support our school!
Also, in this newsletter, please take a few moments to read all about our 2018 Campus-Wide Community Service Project! We are SO excited about getting ALL of our Cannon Cubs involved in the spirit of the holiday season through community service!
Proud to be your principal,
Mrs. Blizzard
#BeCannonProud
IT'S TIME FOR OUR 2018 CAMPUS-WIDE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT!
One of our FAVORITE campus traditions is our annual campus-wide community service project that we do every year during the holiday season! All of our Kindergarten-5th grade students are part of these annual community service projects and we feel this is so important! When students get involved in community service, they not only learn how great it feels to help others — they expand their worldview, develop empathy and leadership skills, and realize how their actions can have a positive impact!
For those of you who are new to our campus, please check out some of the community service projects our Cubs have been part of in previous years:
#JoyBots - Our 2017 community service project was designed to support our local community. All K-5 Cannon students designed a special "robot" using dominoes. These bots were designated as Joy Bots, Hug Bots, Brave Bots, Book Bots, etc.. and distributed to representatives from our local fire/police departments; public library; children's hospital, etc.. We asked these representatives to hand out these Bots to others in our local community that could use an extra boost of "joy" during a time of need!
Project Linus - Our campus-wide community service project for 2016 had ALL of our Cannon Cubs involved!! We made fleece blankets to donate to Project Linus. These blankets were given to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere else that a child might be in need of a big hug!
Habitat For Humanity This campus-wide community service project was a huge success!! Cannon Cubs raised over $1,000 for Habitat For Humanity by selling home-themed holiday ornaments they designed in class.
This year, I am excited to share that we will be kicking off our 2018 school-wide community service project this week, beginning Wednesday, November 28th. We are collecting SHOES!! All kinds of shoes...new shoes, gently used shoes, and even those well-worn shoes that might not be fit for wearing any longer. As a campus, we are trying to see how many pairs of shoes we can collect between 11/28 and 12/19 for a very worthy cause. We are working with an organization called Soles 4 Souls, whose mission is simple...to collect shoes and deliver them to people in need. The new and gently used shoes are given directly to victims of poverty or natural disasters, while the shoes that have been more heavily used are donated to support recycling & micro-enterprise programs in Haiti, Honduras, Bolivia, and other countries.
Shoe collection boxes will be set in each grade level collaboration area and all students will be involved in this effort of giving, by helping with counting, sorting, etc... We have even planned some "shoe-related" learning experiences for all grade levels, in which shoes will be incorporated into content learning in a number of innovative and creative ways! Be sure to ask your child about the GIANT shoe graph that they will help us create in the café to make our community service efforts visible for all!
We thank you in advance for your willingness to support our community service project by sending all shoe donations (children, men, & women's shoes) to school with your child beginning Wednesday, November 28th. Please make sure that each pair of shoes is bound with a rubber band or by tying laces together. (We request that NO shoes be sent in until this date, in order to allow time for us to set up our collection boxes and introduce this project to our students).
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SEEN @ CANNON LAST WEEK!
Rock & Roll Musical Performance
2nd Graders Engineer Play Dough With A Purpose!
Grandparents/Grandfriends Day
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Mark Your Calendars.....
UPCOMING EVENTS
11/27 - Spanish Spelling Bee Timberline Elementary 9:00 am - Learning Commons
11/29 - Cubs Night Out @ Cici's Pizza
12/3-12/7 Hour of Code Week All K-5 Cubs will be involved in coding activities all week!
12/04 - Cubs Night Out @ Chick Fil A - William D. Tate 5-7 PM
12/06 - Grapevine Holiday Parade of Lights 7:00 pm Come see Cannon's amazing float, designed by our Cannon's Dad's Club!
12/11 - Cannon Spelling Bee 8:30 am - Cannon Café
12/12-12/15 Santa Shop open for students during school
12/14 Candy Houses With Kindergarten Dads - 8:00-10:00 am - Cannon cafeteria
12/15 - Breakfast with Santa - 9-11 AM - $4 per plate - pictures with Santa, Santa Shop shopping, Cannon Choirs will sing
12/20 Cannon Choir Holiday Tour Field Trip 8:00-11:15 am
12/20 Cannon Choir Holiday "Gift" Concert - 6:00 pm - Cannon Café
12/21 Class Holiday Parties 10:15- 11:15 am
12/21 Early Release @ 11:45
12/24-01/07 Student Holiday Break
01/08 Students return to school
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CAMPUS & DISTRICT UPDATES
SPELLING BEE UPDATE
CANNON SPELLING BEE UPDATE:
We were SO excited to see how many of our 4th & 5th grade students participated in the Spelling Bee pre-test before the Thanksgiving holiday break! All students who are eligible to participate in the bee, based on their pre-test results, have already been notified and received study materials they can use to prepare for the school bee scheduled on December 11th @ 8:30 in the Cannon Café. All parents of participating students are encouraged to attend!
GCISD SPANISH SPELLING BEE INFORMATION:
This week, several of our Cannon scholars will compete in the GCISD Spanish Spelling Bee. This event will be held at Timberline Elementary School @ 9:00 in the Learning Commons. FELICIDADES to these Cannon participants and BUENA SUERTE!
5th grade scholars:
Mario Beltran
Sarahi De La Rosa
Jose Mendoza
Kalvin Gonzalez
Brynn Snyder
Elise Cunha
Jessica Tuney
Connor Nutt
Adrian Romo
Yandel Oracio
Esteban Lezama
Book Of The Month - November/December
Check out all of the details using the presentation and newsletter links below!
How Is YOUR Child Progressing On The 2018 GCISD Reads Challenge?
We have a record number of our Cannon Cubs who have already COMPLETED the requirements for the 2018 GCISD Reads Challenge - way to go!! The GCISD Reads initiative is designed to build a love of reading in students by encouraging them to read a large quantity and a wide variety of books.
Who: GCISD students, staff, and parents are all invited to participate.
What: Students have several challenge options to choose from including:
Challenge 1: Book Challenge
Read 25 books of your choosing (minimum 100 pages per book)
OR
Read 100 books of your choosing (an option for K-2 students only)
Challenge 2: Page Challenge
Watch your pages add up as you read (1500 pgs for K-2, 2500 pgs for 3-5)
Challenge 3: Genre Challenge
Explore a wide variety of genres- 3 biography, 3 non-fiction/informational, 3 fantasy, 3 poetry, 3 mystery, 3 historical fiction, 3 fiction (any topic or form), 4 free choice
**As part of our new eBook initiative in the GCISD Learning Commons, students meeting any of the challenges (1, 2, or 3) must read at least 2 of their books as eBooks! Find eBooks on Overdrive through Classlink, or the Epic app on ipads.
When: Between June 1, 2018 and May 1, 2019
Where: Reading can take place in or outside of school using paper or electronic materials.
Why: Students who read more do better in school, have wider vocabularies, and have a lifelong habit enabling them to continue learning beyond their K-12 education.
How: Students will keep track of their reading in a log that notes the title, number of pages, genre, and date completed. Click here to see a list on Mrs. Wagner's website for possible recording logs. Once students have completed a challenge, their logs should be turned in to their classroom teacher or the librarian. The librarian will record the completed challenges on a Google form to ensure they receive a certificate at the end of the school year and are invited to our GCISD Reads celebration.
Parent Technology Academy
GCISD Parent Technology Academy is BACK! Sessions are scheduled monthly with more to come! Come and learn along with others about the ever-changing world of technology in which your children are living!
Sessions can be found on the Parent Technology Academy Webpage
Calling Cannon Dads! It's Parade Float Time!
They will meet at 2126 Spur Trail in Grapevine on the remaining dates and times. Remember - If your Cannon Cub/s wants to ride on the float in the Grapevine Parade of Lights on December 6th, you need to have helped build the float. The float is really looking good and they are starting on painting and decorating this weekend. The float will hold over 60 Cannon Cubs. Hope to see you soon!
Dad’s Club Float Building Dates:
November 25 -Sunday 1:00 pm
November 27- Tuesday 6:00 pm
November 28- Wednesday 6:00 pm
November 30- Friday 6:00 pm
December 1 -Saturday 9:00 am
December 2- Sunday 1:00 pm
December 3 -Monday 6:00 pm
December 4 -Tuesday 6:00 pm
December 5 -Wednesday 6:00 pm
Additional information can be found on the Dad's Club website: https://www.cannonpta.com/dadsclub
Amazon Smile
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NEWS FROM CANNON PTA
PTA QUICK PICKS!
Check out these "quick picks" of reminders & information from PTA:
- READ-A-THON Thank you to everyone who helped support our PTA fundraiser - we exceeded our goal and raised $13,204! Information will be coming home soon with dates/details about all prizes that were earned.
- UPCOMING PTA EVENTS:
Cub Night Out: Tuesday, December 4th, Chick-fil-A on William D. Tate 5-7 PM. You can dine in or drive through but please make sure you tell them you are here for Cannon!
HoHoHo! The Cannon Secret Santa shop is coming December 12-15! In order to provide a great shopping experience for your student we need your help! Please sign up below to help us with the Santa Shop!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0d44ada72ca1fd0-santa
Save the Date! Saturday, December 15th - Breakfast with Santa 9-11 AM. Pancake breakfasts are $4 per plate. There will be pictures with santa, shopping in the santa shop, and the Cannon Cub Choirs will perform. We need your help with this event! Please check the link below and join us in the fun! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0448a9af2aa4fc1-pancake
Additional events at cannonpta.com/calendar
Stay connected by following Cannon PTA on social media. Click here to "like" the PTA Facebook page. Follow them on Twitter @CannonPTA.
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QUICK LINKS FOR PARENTS
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I want to make you aware of where you can see information and resources, specifically about the Cannon construction project. Also, check out the awesome exterior renderings of our new school below!!
Please reach out to me to let me know of any questions you may have about this project. This is a VERY exciting time for our Cannon school community and I want to make sure all of our Cannon families stay informed!
Click here to see project updates on all GCISD Bond programs
Click here to sign up for construction updates by email about the Cannon project!
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Cannon Elementary: A GCISD STEM School
Email: tona.blizzard@gcisd.net
Website: http://www.gcisd-k12.org/Domain/1428
Location: 1300 W College St, Grapevine, TX, United States
Phone: 817-251-5680
Facebook: facebook.com/CannonSTEM
Twitter: @canSTEM