This week we are working on the life cycle of a plant.  We looked at how seeds travel so that new plants can grow.  They observed a number of seeds and then sorted them using a tree map on how the seeds would travel.  Check out the students hard at work.

Make plans to attend our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) Information Night on Thursday, 5/30 at 6:30 in the school cafeteria.  Beginning next year, Cannon will be renamed and operate as Cannon Elementary: A GCISD STEM School, and we will be open for limited enrollment for students from any elementary school in the district.

Our STEM program supports the district's LEAD 2021 strategic plan to best prepare students for life beyond GCISD, but also provides greater choice in education for our students and we are excited to share more information with you at this meeting.  Information about next year's Cannon's 1:1 iPad Initiative for all K-5 students will also be shared at this meeting.  Use the link below for more information.

  http://www.gcisd-k12.org/stem

Today we finished our ibooks animals books for 1st grade.  I can't wait for you to see them.  You will need an ipad and you need to have the ibook app to view them.  If you don't have these at home please feel free to stop by and I will let you use one of ours.  They are so impressive.  Check them out.  http://can-ganus.wikispaces.com/Animal+iBooks

We have been working on our non-fiction project for a couple of weeks.  We learned all about non-fiction text features so we could help out the first grade teachers.  We are making non-fiction books about the animals they research that will be on their level.  Some of the books are their level were too hard.  So we researched and wrote our books.  This week we have been in the computer lab creating our books in ibook author.  We can't wait to share them with 1st grade and our parents. 

Please join us on Tuesday, 5/21 for Family STEM Night!  We have a great evening planned and look forward to seeing you there!  Don't forget to stop by the gym between 6:00-7:00 pm for our special exhibit, The Engineering Expo.  This fun event is for kids of ALL ages and will feature a variety of exciting hands-on activities to learn more about gravity, static electricity, vibration, properties of matter, robotics, and more! 

5:30-6:00 - Cannon Choir Performance 

6:00 - 7:30 - Visit your child's classroom for a hands-on STEM-based experience!

 

Don't forget to visit the Book Fair in the library  - 5:30 - 7:30

SEE YOU THERE!!

Building Challenge Day!!!!!!!  We love our building challenges.  Today we looked at domes.  We talked about how they have been around for almost 2,000 years, but there are still new ways to build them.  In the 1950's an engineer named Buckminster Fuller thought of a new dome design.  He used triangular sides.  This kind of dome is called a geodesic dome.  It is strong because of all the triangles.  It also uses fewer materials than other structures that have the same amount of space inside.  Fuller looked at a dome and saw a way to make it better.  Future engineers like our students could think of a new way to design one.  They were given gumdrops and toothpicks and given the challenge of building a dome.  Check out their structures. 

Today in Social Studies we looked at how goods can be produced by an individual or in a factory.  We discuss what they thought would be the fastest way for a good to be produced.  They decided they felt the factory was faster.  Then they discussed and shared why they felt that way.  They all said that they felt specialized jobs, teamwork, and machines would make the factory faster.  They we decided to test our theory.  We set up a flower factory where everyone had specialized jobs and then we also had some individuals making flowers.  They were given 15 minutes to test their ideas.  The results were individual 5 and the factory made 14.    Take a look at those hard factory workers.