Third Grade Capitol Tour and Historical Museum Visit

“YAY!” is the onomatopoeia exclaimed every time the Lansing Capitol Building trip is announced in third grade each fall.  Then, for weeks, the conversations buzz around the special third grade all-day Lansing adventure to visit the Capitol Building and the Michigan History Museum.  Perhaps the kids are excited about this long distance bus trip for several years prior to departure.  It’s definitely a third grade highlight!  

The Capitol Building is a huge part of our Michigan history.  Our government home was originally in Detroit, however, the current building has been in Lansing for more than 145 years!  Suffering years of neglect, the beauty was returned with several stages of renovating over the past several decades.  Most recently the beautiful addition of the Heritage Hall in 2020.  This year’s trip was shortened a tiny bit because the beautiful dome was under restoration.  The Rotunda was closed to the public.  

  

The Michigan History Museum is a short walk away from the Capitol building.  The exhibit timeline reaches far back to the Michigan Native Americans and shares our rich history and growth to modern time. 

 

 

 

Visiting the Capitol and the Museum in the fall gives a great overview picture of our history for all the learning to come throughout third grade.  Using the exhibits as a springboard for discussions during the remainder of the year facilitates easy connections.

Some of the favorite parts of the trip for the kids this year:

• Riding the bus!

• Seeing the Capitol chandeliers in person

• Going into the Governor’s Ceremonial Office

• Being in the Chambers

• Seeing fossils in the floor

• Seeing President Gerald Ford’s portrait

• Riding the big wheeled bike

• Holding a Wooly Mammoth tooth

• Being in a mining cave

• Sitting in antique school chairs

• The ginormous elevator

• Seeing how Michigan participated in the war

Attitude of Gratitude

From the time they are young, children are taught to say thank you when a person does something kind or helpful. A sense of gratitude, or feeling thankful and appreciative of the good things in one’s life, is an important social-emotional skill that can increase happiness and improve health. As they grow, kids can be encouraged to reflect on why they feel thankful. During the month of November, we are focusing on building that skill…and we sure are feeling grateful! Our tree of thankfulness in the main entrance of the lower campus is filled with some of the things our early childhood students are thankful for!

Mrs. Blalock’s preschool 5 students worked to create gratitude stones of their very own. How do you use a gratitude stone? Some ideas include passing and sharing at dinnertime, bedtime prayer and daily reflection, or using it to calm strong emotions. You can also share a gratitude stone by giving it to someone you appreciate,, or share it by scattering stones in your community! 

    

Gratitude Stones from Mrs. Blalock’s friends, inspired by Fireflies & MudPies

Preschool 5 is also celebrating 30 days of Thankfulness by adding something new to a classroom bulletin board each day. We’re only halfway through the month, and thankful for so many things… like family, love, Jesus, birthdays, and rain for rainbows, just to name a few! We’ve given thanks to the Lord as we’ve learned about creation this month too. The kids have completed creation books to take home, and are experts singing about how God is GOOD!

2023 Eagle Award

 The Eagle Award is presented each year by the Home and School Association to a member of the ASA community in acknowledgement of his or her extraordinary contribution to the success of All Saints Academy.  We began a new tradition last year, presenting this prestigious award on our school’s feast of All Saints Day. 

This award enhances the culture of All Saints Academy by drawing attention to those who are living our Catholic faith and supporting our school mission by holding them up as an example for others to follow.

This year's recipient of the All Saints Academy Eagle award is Mrs. Beckie Patterson. Beckie currently directs the Early Childhood Program at ASA which serves over 160 children. She has been a key member of All Saints Academy for all 16 years of our existence.

Beckie is very hardworking and dedicated to the core values of Faith, Learning, Loving and Serving. Not only does she take on the Administrative responsibilities of operating a childcare, but she also spends tons of time in classrooms supporting teachers and working with students. Our childcare and toddler programs are operating from 6:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. which means that Beckie never sleeps!

Mrs. Patterson was nominated by a number of people for the award.

One person wrote, “In a long list of someone who gives their heart and soul to All Saints Academy, maybe nobody does it better than Beckie Patterson.”  

Another person wrote, “As a supervisor, you will not often find her working in her office, but rather working in a classroom. I am not quite sure how she manages all of the scheduling, paperwork, and countless hours it takes to keep an ever growing program running so efficiently.” 

Another wrote, “She works until 6pm daily, she makes sure we are staffed to provide childcare for families from 6:30am-6:00pm over the summer, during the school year and even on snow days!”  

Congratulations

 Mrs. Patterson on your much deserved award!

All Saints Day 2023

As Mr. Gietzen mentioned in his post mass speech, “The Holy Spirit is alive and well at All Saints Academy.” Today, we celebrated our school feast day in typical ASA fashion with community and prayer.  On All Saints Day, our root belief of “We are One” became true in the physical sense as the Upper Campus students began the day at the Lower Campus leading the whole school in the Rosary, followed by some joyful song.  Even the preschool joined in with a special song and gift for our former Principal, Mr. Debri!  After a bit of reading and academic time, all the students were shuttled to St. Isidore for mass.

At Mass, Fr. George Darling preached to our students and staff about our mission of striving to become Saints. He mentioned the importance of following the examples of the Saints to move us closer to that goal and explained that we celebrate the Saints because they model for us the way to become closer to Jesus. 

Following Mass, the All Saints Day celebration continued for our school community. We were able to award Mrs. Beckie Patterson the coveted Eagle Award for her wonderful work leading our Early Childhood Program. This award is much deserved.  Thank you Mrs. Patterson for being such a great leader.

We were also able to honor Mr. Debri for his time at ASA. Mr. Debri served the ASA community for 13 years and today, we were able to thank him for “being the light” for our community.  He was sent off with a “Flame” so he can now be the light for his new school community. 

Following Mass and celebrating our honorees, the ASA Students and Staff participated in a Praise and Worship Concert and a cake reception in the St. Isidore Family Center.  The students and teachers danced and sang their hearts out while glorifying the Gospel.  It was a truly wonderful day filled with Faith, Learning, Loving and Serving and a great way to celebrate on our school's feast day.