Regina Bartels, Instructional Coach

Cimarron Salutes Our Veterans

On Tuesday, November 11, 2014, we celebrated our brave Cimarron Veterans.  The streets were lined with flags as our honored guests started the day with a hot breakfast provided by our fabulous teachers.  We were lucky to have HEB and Panera Bread donate money and pastries, making this year’s breakfast even better. 

The Veterans paraded into the gym to applause and waving flags.  Mayde Creek JROTC presented the flags as they led us in the pledge to the flags. 

The Cheetah Choir, led by Mrs. Boltz, filled the air with beautiful patriotic music. All the children sang along.  I watched the Veterans toes tap and clap hands as they were serenaded.  The students then performed a beautifully orchestrated flag routine to Stars and Striped Forever by American composer, John Philip Sousa.

Contest winners in all four categories were announced and proudly shared their pieces with the audience.  The winners were:

Trevor Black – Poetry

Luke Eichhorn – Narrative Essa

Kaia Fagley – Photography

Mady Leach – Visual Arts

Among the honored Veterans were two of our own, Mr. Fleming and Mr. Guess.  It was a pleasure to recognize our own Cimarron Veterans!  Special recognition went to our “Most Senior Veteran”, Mr. Duane Dyer!  Mr. Dyer is the great grandfather to one of our 3^rd grade students.  Mr. Dyer is a WWII Army Veteran who served as part of the occupational force in France. He received a stand ovation accepting his award.

Our celebration concluded with a Parade of Heroes through the student lined hallways.  There was music, laughter, high five’s and chanting, “U.S.A”.  Our students walked away from the day full of pride and love for our country and her heroes.  We are looking forward to next year’s celebration!

Kindergarten Team

Pumpkin Experiment

In Kindergarten we celebrated the fall season by having a pumpkin lab in all the classes! The students were excited to use their five senses to investigate a pumpkin with their class. They applied both math and science in their investigations.

Students used their knowledge of properties to describe and draw a pumpkin just like a scientist!

Students estimated how tall a pumpkin was using blocks. They then measured the pumpkin to find the actual height.

“I learned how to measure it with blocks and string.” – Jasmine
“I guessed it would be 5 blocks tall, but it was really 10.” - Rex

The kindergarten students then peeked inside, once again using their knowledge of properties to describe what they saw and felt.   Students estimated how many seeds were inside and the teacher helped count them all! Wow! There were a lot!

“The pumpkin, it has lots of seeds. Ours had 454!” – Paiton
“We dug in it and got the seeds out. It felt slimy.” – Angelito
“The pumpkin was slimy and gross.” – Mady

Students also got to estimate the circumference of their pumpkin with string and then checked it to see if they were just right, too long or too short.

The last lab the students participated in was to see if the pumpkin would sink or float. Most of the kindergartens were astonished that the pumpkin actually floated!

“Our pumpkin didn’t sink!” – Jacob
“Pumpkins can float.” – Erin

The students recorded all their observations and discoveries in their pumpkin notebook! After that they discussed their findings with their friends.

Rhyan, 1st Grade Student

Katie The Bus Visit

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 we had a lesson about Katie the Bus.

Mrs. McCarthy took us to the cafeteria and 2 ladies told us about bus safety. They used a bus puppet. They acted out all the important things about riding a bus safely. They sang a poem to us about bus safety. The song was: “Bottom to the bottom, back to the back, hands on your backpack, hands on your lap”.

Then they told us to line up. We walked out of the building. We stood by the bus and they explained about the “special sound” which goes “psssss”. This means, the bus has stopped you can get in now.

Then, we got on the bus and they told us to sit three on one seat. They explained things about the bus. 

• Never sit on your knees
• Never stick your head out of the bus
• If there is an emergency, we can use  the emergency exits
• Never sit on edge of the seat
• Voice level 1

Then, we were ready to ride the bus. She drove us around the parking lot. While she rode us around, we sang “The Wheels on the Bus” song. Then, we parked. We got out. She asked for a volunteer.

She picked Ethan. Ethan grabbed a tissue box pretending it was a lunchbox. The lady taught us what to do if we ever drop something in front of the bus. She walked a few inches into the street. Then, Ethan dropped the tissue box. She taught us that if we ever drop something to wave to the bus driver so she doesn’t run us over.

We then practiced crossing the street in front of the bus. We practiced freezing like a popsicle when we heard the honk. When the driver moved her hand, we walked. When she showed her hand to stop, we would freeze again.

When the lesson was done she told us we did a great job. She gave us a coloring book about everything that she taught us.

It was awesome to learn about safety rules on the bus!