Fire Safety 2009

                                 Fire Safety at CCS

October 2009

The Cushing Volunteer Fire Department came to CCS to teach our students about fire safety.

The fire department reviewed general fire safety rules with our students, such as stop, drop and roll, quickly leave a burning building and call from a second location, and feeling the surface of doors to see if they are hot.

Each class (even some of the teachers!) practiced crawling their way through a maze of cones. Many of our students tried this blindfolded.

The fire department left our students an assignment to learn their physical address in order to tell a dispatcher if calling 911.

Each student was awarded certificates from McDonalds for participating in the program, along with a red ribbon.

Thank you, Cushing Fire Department, for sharing fire safety with our students.

Kindergarten Class

Grades 3 & 4, crawling through cones

Grades 3 & 4, reviewing fire safety rules

Halloween parade and Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers

A wide variety of costumes were displayed at the CCS Halloween parade!  

The Friends and Family of CCS parent group provided delicious, healthy snacks for our students.

The Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers performed “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow," a comedic version of the classic Washington Irving tale, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."   The show was a big hit!

Halloween parade

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"The Headless Horseman"

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Maine Author 2010

Have you ever thought about what goes into creating a book? The students of Cushing Community School have. Author and illustrator Chris VanDusen captivated the students on Maine Author Day at CCS. VanDusen shared the making of his very first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, which took longer than most of our students have been alive! He showed them how he made his plans for his book. Then he showed them many attempts at the sketches for the book. The students were in awe of how many times he edited and revised his book. He entertained them with the reading of this book, which he had memorized. He showed them that the books have been printed in other languages as well. The students did very well at guessing which language each was printed in.

 VanDusen was impressed with our students’ knowledge of his books and the books that certain authors had written, as well as their experience with painting in Art class. Ask your children how he got the little blue dots into the wave of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee.   

VanDusen clearly was excited about sharing his work. He told the students about his current book, which should be out in October 2010. He also shared ideas about future books. The children loved how he included a picture of Mr. Magee in other books such as If I Built a Car and The Circus Ship. Even though one of the future book's time period is way before Mr. Magee’s time, the children encouraged him to include Mr. Magee in some way.

Maine Author, Chris Van Dusen reading " If I Built a Car."

Chris Van Dusen shows the students one of his illustration boards.

Winter Olympics

The week of February 8^th, Winter Olympic activities were held at Cushing Community School. The Olympics were integrated into various lesson plans that week. Classes participated in Winter Olympic activities such as snowshow slalom and figure skating in socks. Students made their own Olympic medals in art class. We had daily Olympic trivia questions. At the end of the week we held closing ceremonies. Students marched into the multi-purpose room to the Olympic theme song. Students wore their Olympic medals, and while they stood on our Olympic podiums, shared some new learning with our audience. It was a wonderful end to our week, before February vacation.

One of the Winter Olympic activities in second grade.

Students sharing their learning while standing on the Olympic podium.

The Pledge of Allegiance at the closing ceremony.