God is Love:

6th Grade Retreat: The Trinity 

In February the 6th Grade participated in a day long “in-house” retreat that focused on the Holy Trinity.  The objects of the retreat were…

• Explore the Mystery of the Trinity, specifically how the Trinity reveals that God is love
• Experience the joy of the faith and make plans for how to share that with others! 

One aspect of the retreat that students really seemed to enjoy was our Saint Plays.  These plays, meant for reader’s theater focus on a particular virtue and highlight a life of a saint that exemplifies that virtue.  We randomly choose roles for these plays. Students really enjoy performing them for each other.  One student commented:

"One of my favorite parts of our retreat was our saint plays. It was a lot of joy to practice with different people and use our performing abilities. Wearing costumes and bringing in makeup and props also was fun. We had a great time practicing and a even more fun performing in front of others. Although some groups had the same play, it was fun to see other people do the same play."  -Mei Moore

We began with some activities that explored the idea of the trinity, including some team building games to practice working together in partnership and relationship with others. 

Then made a pretzel snack to symbolize the 3 parts of the Holy Trinity.

And packaged a pretzel snack for other middle school students with a message to teach them about The Holy Trinity. 

Celebrating Faith @ ASA

Faith: A Core Value Video 

https://youtu.be/2nmdp00lUNo

Building Empathy

Empathy Puzzles

The fourth graders had a chance to grow their empathy skills through escape room puzzles! While in their groups, they were having fun working together to solve five puzzles and earn hearts to uncover the secret message about empathy. They showed off their ability to work as a team, listen to each other’s ideas, encourage one another, take turns trying ideas and celebrating each other’s accomplishments. The final challenge allowed the students to discover the secret message, Empathy can change the world! 

Before we did the wax museum we did a puzzle game. It would mostly help us with teamwork. Most of the puzzles were challenging but our group got through. We were happy when we finished it. ~Adam

We had to share our ideas. It was challenging and fun to get to the next puzzle. ~Elizabeth

It was really fun because we got to work as a group and get to know each other more. I learned Shannon is really good at puzzles! ~Jada

It was challenging but we worked together! ~ Liam

It was fun! We had to work as a team to get to the next puzzle. ~ Tommy

4th Grade Wax Museum

Career Wax Museum

The fourth graders hosted a career wax museum at our elementary campus. They researched and became an expert about a specific career. They were able to show off their poster presentations and shine with their sharpened public speaking skills for the museum goers, students in kindergarten through third grade, staff, family and friends. 

I liked the wax museum because I was able to present what I want to be when I grow up. Then I had a chance to see all the different careers. Then all the people got to listen to our careers. ~ Sam

The wax museum was a really fun day. We played career bingo with the third graders. ~Elizabeth

At the wax museum it was fun because everybody liked my button. ~ Jack

The wax museum was fun! Everybody liked my animals. ~ Tommy

Principals for the Day

Elementary Principals! 

Max and Poppy Malinzak relieved Mr. Debri for a day last week as winners of the popular Eaglefest Auction item, “Principal for the Day.”

They began their experience opening the door for students at 8:00 AM just as Mr. Debri does (which was timely on this day as he had another meeting to tend to) every morning. Next, Max and Poppy met with Mr. Debri to review their daily objectives. After introducing themselves at morning prayer, they took a tour of the school, made an announcement over the PA system, and visited several classrooms.

 

The afternoon was the most exciting part of their day. Max and the 2nd grade boys enjoyed pizza and tacos in the Principal's Office while getting to watch some TV. 

Poppy and the first grade girls did the same in the Learning Lab.  They ended their day with passing out suckers to each of the students and playing some games in the gym. Just before we dismissed both principals exclaimed, “It was the best day ever!” 

Principal at the Middle School 

Keenan McGavin started his "day" as the ASA Middle School Principal by "calling" our first of a series of snow days at the start of what should have been Catholic Schools Week 2019!

Once the first Polar Vortex of 2019 passed Keenan re-assumed his leadership responsibilities by delivering student appreciation snacks, doing class visits, awarding jeans days for students being prime examples of Christ-like behavior, and he helped ring in lunch orders! 

The afternoon of Principal McGavin's day included a working lunch with his classmates and then extended to coordinating Eddy the Eagle's commitments for the annual 8th grade VS staff basketball games!

Thanks for all the help, Mr McGavin! - Miss Giroux

It's Cool To Be Catholic

5th Grade Class Retreat

By Roman Plew, Dean Armock, Ben Jared and Lucas Puls.

Each year the ASA 5th grade class spends a retreat day learning about The Mystery of the Incarnation. This year the boys had a special guest working with on writing their own Personal Catholic Mission Statement! 

Master Kilroy loves to teach students and loves to say “it's cool to be catholic.” Master Kilroy is super nice and he knows martial arts. He said he wouldn't want to be doing anything else but to be teaching us. He played irish instruments in front of our class. Master Kilroy is very good at playing all of his instruments. 

We had so much  fun and we learned so many things. He taught us four ways to be better Catholics. They are to pray every day, study the Bible, serve others with your time, talent and treasure, and to evangelize. We also learned that Master Kilroy is a very good  catholic. 

Master Kilroy had us write our very own Catholic mission statements to help us learn how to be better Catholics.

 "My mission statement is to follow Jesus footsteps and to be like Christ." - Roman

Lessons learned from their time with Coach K: 

Pray every day, in the morning and at night! 

Stand up for someone getting bullied. 

Give the talent you have to God! 

It's important to repent, ask for forgiveness and get back on track. 

I love God, Jesus & Life! 

While the boys worked with Coach Kilroy and Mr. Kress Addison and a friend worked with their moms on painting bowls for Soups on For All!

Other activities during this day included group discussions about The Incarnation, and birdhouse making!

During middle school class retreat days staff strive to give students a chance to work on their personal relationship with Christ, learn about some of the great mysteries of the faith, and practice their faith with projects that give back to the community or honor God's creation! 

West Catholic Youth League

Winter Basketball Fun! 

Nearly 20 All Saints Academy students participated in West Catholic High School’s Youth Basketball League this winter. The league takes place over five saturdays in January and February for students in grades PreK-4. It is a great way to get introduced to the game at a young age and develop the skills needed as students begin competing for their ASA team in fifth grade. It is also a great way to meet other families from around the Diocese of Grand Rapids. 

Members of both boys’ and girls’ basketball programs serve as coaches, officials, and volunteers.  A handful of ASA alums were even a part of this group!