Lodi Christian School celebrates 10 years
This year Lodi Christian School is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The school was founded in 2008 and since its beginning of only eight teachers, it has grown to over 30 staff members and over 200 students with grades preschool through eighth grade.
Staff and students have already started celebrating the school’s 10th birthday. Special gifts like LCS mugs and embroidered bags have been gifted to students.
The school will continue celebrating its 10th anniversary this spring with a special chapel.
Athletics
It’s been a great year for junior high sports at LCS. The school participates in sports all year long. The fall ushers in girls volleyball and coed flag football. Winter is usually exciting with both girls and boys basketball. Cheerleading keeps school spirit strong and loud during games.
This spring LCS will try two new sports: co-ed volleyball and 6-on-6 soccer.
Music
Lodi Christian is proud to have a partnership with B Sharp School of Music. Students have the opportunity to take piano and choir lessons on campus and even be part of a worship band. This year, the worship band provided a stellar onstage performance at the Christmas program and our worship band performed at Hutchins Street Square with the Central Valley Youth Symphony.
Chapel
LCS has weekly chapels that are designed for students. The sixth, seventh, and eighth-graders have chapels that are designed to help them understand issues they are facing as pre-teens in our world. Guest speakers from the community or area may be asked to come and share their life stories.
Students learn that many of the issues and challenges they face as pre-teens are the same issues that others have faced. LCS also has a chapel each week for kindergarten to fifth-grade students. The worship time includes songs the students really enjoy. There is singing, clapping, and dancing along with uplifting music. Interactive, animated Bible stories are shared with the students after worship.
Preschool
It’s been a chilly winter in the LCS preschool, with 58 students learning about Arctic animals and how some of those animals hibernate during the winter. The kids exercised their creative abilities by making snowflakes out of anything they could get their hands on.
It didn’t actually snow, but that didn’t stop the children from enjoying full-fledged snow fights with their manufactured snowballs. They got hands-on experience — feeling the cold of winter — by making “snow dough” out of colored ice blocks.
Enhancements
Once or twice each week, the seventh and eighth-grade students combine and meet for enhancement classes. This year’s enhancement classes include robotics, art and drama. Students rotate throughout the school year and are able to experience each enhancement class with a different group.
Using the Lego Mindstorms NXT2 programming in robotics, student teams learn to design and program an autonomous robot through a series of missions. On the last day of class, the students compete in a contest to see which team’s robot can score the most points.
During art, students are introduced to several art media and techniques. They leave art class with many creative examples of their work. Drama class consists of debate, role playing, and impromptu acting — activities the students really enjoy.
STEM
At the present time, Lodi Christian School is considering adding Quest for Space to its science curriculum. Quest for Space is a STEM program that inspires students to learn a variety of 21st century disciplines that will help to prepare them for the future job market.
Utilizing science, technology, engineering and math, students develop an experiment at school that will ultimately be conducted on the International Space Station. The school is excited at the prospect of implementing this unique program that promotes creativity, problem-solving skills and collaboration for our students.
Science Camp
The Science Camp at Mission Springs’ outdoor education is a wonderful tethering point for the sixthgrade class. Students and chaperones experience life as the church was described in the Bible book of “Acts” — a unified church. Each morning, students break off into their hiking groups with Mission Springs’ naturalists to explore the beauty of Scotts Valley. Naturalists guide their groups through the majesty of God’s creation, focusing on environmental stewardship and team-building activities.
Each evening, the students come together for a daily debrief from our activities allowing students the chance to reconnect, while students and chaperones alike take turns spotlighting others for their accomplishments achieved during that day. This trip creates a great opportunity for new students at LCS to be immersed in our culture while learning about the community they will be involved with for the entire year. The class returns to school with a new appreciation for their environment, and for their shared experiences together as a small group.
Color Run
This fall our school held its first Color Run. Students had a blast running laps while parent volunteers tossed specially designed color powder on them. This event encouraged physical activity, having fun and an opportunity to serve our community.
Funds raised were not just for the school. A portion of the proceeds were given to this year’s chosen charity; Operation Restored Warrior to assist with their work in aiding veterans in their walk with God after returning home from serving our country. We look forward to making this a colorful, annual event.