Kindergarten

April & May & June 2022

"Adventures Growing with God"
My Deep Hope for Kindergarten is that we will grow in our love for God and each other as we notice Him in all of our learning adventures.
Kindergarten has come to a close and we have had so much fun finishing up all of our learning! Some highlights from our month include hosting a school food drive, visiting Drumlin Farm, and planting vegetables with Pastor Fish.

We have enjoyed the warm weather days to the fullest and stayed outside longer when it's especially nice and warm. Students dug holes, found gems, discovered and identified bugs, and made huge chalk drawings.
Reading
In Reader's Workshop, we have continued to read bigger and harder books and learned what it means to be avid readers. We also spent the last few weeks doing an author study on Mo Willems. We read and compared his different characters and the different styles of his books. We made our own piggie and elephant comics and puppets to act out our favorite books. If you don't have any Mo Willems books at home you could pick some up at the library for some family reading fun this summer.


Writing
We finished off the year using our writing skills to write more books and also wrote letters to people at home and in our community.
We also used our writing to make definition poems about our FARM to TABLE vegetables. Students used the information they had learned and observed about the vegetables to write their poems.
Ms. Mastandrea helped each student draw a realistic picture to go with their poem. Students drew multiple drafts before they even added color to their vegetable pictures.
Math
In May, we finished up our units on numbers to 100 as well as sorting by attribute. Because of the high interest in big numbers, we even practiced counting to 1000 by 10s! These mathematicians can't be stopped! We had a class ballon party when we finished our math workbooks. In the last few weeks, we learned about comparing numbers, identifying coins, and also telling time to the hour. It has been so fun to see the excitement this class had for learning math!
Farm to Table FLEX

Formational Learning Experiences (FLEx) are opportunities for the students to engage in “real work that meets a real need for real people”—opportunities to practice living the kingdom story. Our Farm to Table FLEX project has been a significant focus of our last two months of school. We learned about food insecurity in our community, why people may need help getting food, and what we can do to help with the problem. We learned that 2 out of every 10 kids in our area experience food insecurity. We read "Maddie's Fridge" and "Saturday at the Food pantry" which explain that everyone needs help sometimes and we can help people in so many different ways. Once the Kindergarteners learned that there are people without food, they got to work brainstorming all the ways that we could help. We learned about the local food pantry that is already in partnership with Covenant Church and decided to collect food to donate there. Students worked on posters and flyers to get the word out and we even invited the big kids to help us! Kindergarten students counted the items using our math skills of grouping by ten and recorded the amounts for two weeks. In the end, the Lexington campus collected 222 items for the food pantry. In all, we collected over 400 food items that were delivered to the Arlington Food Pantry. It was a huge success!
Science
We also extended our Farm to Table learning with two other events. The Kindergarten class visited Drumlin Farm for a full day of learning. We were able to pet a cow, sheep, and even goats. Students learned about different animals that lay eggs and also investigated some pond water. We had a fun day exploring and adventuring as a class.

We were also able to help Pastor Fish (pastor of Countryside Church) plant some vegetables in the garden beds outside the school. The church uses the vegetables to feed the church but also donates excess to a local food pantry. Each student was able to put some small plants into the ground and we have been watching them grow ever since.

MORE KINDERGARTEN FUN
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It really has been a joy to teach each of your children this school year. I am going to miss them so much but I am so thankful to have had this precious time with them. They are all very ready for all that 1st grade has for them.

With much love!
Ms. DeFranca

Courage
Taking risks to do what is right.

Humility
Laying down my life in order to do things God’s way.

Respect
Recognizing, honoring and protecting the God-given value of others.

Integrity
Being faithful and true to God and His Word in all situations and circumstances.

Seeker Of God
Pursuing an ever-deepening relationship with God.

Teachability
Seeking knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

The mission of New Covenant School is to equip students to follow Jesus and serve in his kingdom by grounding them in godly wisdom and by training them to excel in a life of learning, leadership and service.