Cramming their long legs and adult sized bodies into small desks, students from Traverse City St. Francis High School spent part of Friday afternoon in adjacent Holy Angels Elementary School classrooms.
"They walked in and said, 'Are you kidding me?'” said Donna Brakel, an elementary art teacher who hosted a game of Valentine Bingo in her room for visiting sophomores.
The annual class swap was part of the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools' celebration of Catholic Schools Week, which ran from January 26 through February 1. Trading places is a long-standing tradition, one of a number of activities at all four schools that mark the week.
Heather Larsen remembered being the little kid visiting the big classrooms at the high school. This year, the St. Francis High School sophomore said it is fun to go back and see what has changed at the elementary school.
"It's always very different every year,” she noted.
While freshman through seniors played games, colored, reminisced about younger school days and wrestled with tiny chairs and tables, first and second graders traveled to the high school wing. There, everything from a computer drawing program to
chemistry experiments gave the younger students a taste of their scholastic future.
Chemistry teacher Frank Palladino had a number of dramatic demonstrations on tap for visiting second graders. Donning goggles when they entered his high school lab room, the students first learned about safety and then the teacher introduced some of the equipment his older students use.
Lecturing first about gas molecules, Palladino then performed an array of enticing experiments. The students marveled at the leaping flames, beaker busting growths and stinky smoke that resulted from the teacher's machinations.
"We can get a penny so hot it will glow red,” said Palladino, brandishing an old penny before holding it into a flame.
"New pennies' insides are made of zinc so they'll melt on you,” before demonstrating just that.
All schools in the GTACS system celebrated Catholic Schools Week, joining counterparts around the country in religious education solidarity. An estimated 2.3 million students attend 7,600 Catholic schools nationwide; the local system has more than 1,000 students in grades K-12.
"For me, I have friends at Catholic schools downstate so it's not just connecting with our schools but with all Catholic schools around the country,” said Larsen.
Local events included a PJ party and reading guest, UNO tournament, student-faculty basketball game and collecting canned goods for the Father Fred Foundation annual Frostbite Food Marathon.
Friday's annual class swap was preceded by an all-school morning mass that welcomed the worshippers of all ages from adjoining parishes. More than 1,200 people attended that event, which was followed by a pep rally.
Woven around the games and collections and fun activities, the week's central point was the deeper meaning of their Catholic education.
"Catholic School Week kind of brings us all together and reminds us of why we're all here,” said Chelsea Deisler, a tenth grade student at St. Francis High School. "We see each other every day and we kind of sometimes forget the foundation of everything.”
"We always say we're based around Christ and that sets us apart from other schools,” she added. "We get caught up in the high school drama and stray from the central idea so this week focuses us back on that.”