Wendy McCarthy, 1st Grade Teacher

Mrs. McCarthy's 1st Grade

Holiday Traditions Presentations

December 9-11, 2015

This past week, our first graders were part of an awesome social studies project!

They worked hard on making  posters, videos, and crafts to show and share their holiday    traditions with us.

We had lots of fun! It was like we were bonding!- Paytin C.

We took turns presenting and sharing. We picked a friend to help us and then we had time for questions and comments.

We loved sharing, asking questions, and making comments.—Lydia H.

I liked how we all shared our

posters.—Jonah C.

We shared traditions we do as a family that have been passed on from generation to generation. We were able to see how alike and different we are.

And we learned a lot about each other.

I like  that we all got to share our traditions. –Kaylynn V.

Deanna Krenek's 4th Grade Cheetahs

Picking a Bluebonnet: Zane and the Hurricane

A Collective Review by Ms. Krenek and Her Cheetahs

Fourth grade students at Cimarron Elementary recently read Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick. This literary nonfiction masterpiece, a 2015-2016 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee, captivated these readers with its heart-wrenching storyline of a young boy’s journey of survival throughout Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

In 2005, when many of these students were infants or not yet born, Hurricane Katrina devastated the southeastern coast of the United States. New Orleans endured the initial onslaught of the dangerous storm only to succumb to horrendous flooding and destruction when powerful storm surges caused surrounding levees to breach.

Readers experience the story through the eyes of Zane, a young visitor in this unfamiliar place who finds himself alone and stranded when his dog jumps out of the van window as he and his great-grandmother attempt to evacuate. Following his heart and Bandy’s wagging tail, Zane is left behind to face unimaginable circumstances. Fate intervenes in the kindred souls of Mr. Tru, an elderly jazz musician with a heart of gold, and Malvina, a spunky girl who hides her pain behind the façade of comical one-liners.

The characters in the novel evolve into special friends for whom the readers care deeply. What I like about Mr. Tru was that he was brave, and he knew what to do. (Bryan C.) Malvina is nice and sometimes funny. (Kylah C.) I like her strong relationships with Bandy and Zane. (Ruba E.) Zane helped Bandy get back on his feet. (Josiah R.) Mr. Tru, Zane, and Malvina bravely encounter each obstacle by drawing from sources of inner strength they never knew they possessed. When you run into challenges, you explore new things like Zane did in Katrina. He made new friends, and now Zane knows that he needs to stay calm in big situations.  He is VERY thankful for his family and friends. (Ayah R.)

With a broken infrastructure and inadequate preparation, the NOLA victims of Katrina reacted in extremes. When people are scared, the muscles and brain activate the fight or flight program in your brain. Your heart pumps faster. (Matt C.) Some people went ‘psycho’ during the hurricane, and some people started shooting! (Sam B.) Others were motivated by true desperation. They had no choice but to rob people for food and money, to also take other people’s houses for shelter and get so traumatized from the experience. (David G.) Especially after such overwhelming incidents, you learn from your mistakes, and they make you strong and confident. (Elena L.)

After discovering how life is celebrated during processionals in New Orleans, students served in “second line” as they paraded around the classroom while swirling handkerchiefs in the air. I was enjoying the music. (Landon N.) It was so much fun dancing. (Vivian S.) We got to walk around the room, waving these green sparkly pieces of fabric, so it was fun. (Chassidy F.)

As Zane and the Hurricane concluded with a generous dose of poetic justice, lessons learned, and a beautiful epilogue, the festive strains of New Orleans jazz closed the final chapter and changed our lives forever. 

Alex, 4th Grade Student

Sound Energy

Before Thanksgiving break, 4^th grade students completed projects to demonstrate their understanding of the different types of energy. We had some amazing projects including puppet shows, power points, and game boards.

Alex, from Ms. Helmcamp’s homeroom, wrote this piece about her project about sound.

Sound is made when something vibrates or moves back and forth quickly. The vibrations of the sound you are making travels through the air in waves. Volume is how loud or soft something is.

The waves of loud sounds have a lot of energy and they can travel pretty far. The waves of softer sounds have less energy and they don’t really travel that far. Sound travels in longitudinal waves. Humans can hear sounds from 20 to 20,000 cycles per second.

Here are some vocabulary words to know:

Pitch- how high or low a sound id

Amplitude – the measure of a sound wave

Echo – a reflection of sound

Sonic Boom – A shock that consists of compressed sound waves created when something moves