First Day of School!

Welcome to Black Forest Academy's Opening Ceremonies! Our school is beginning it's 64th year and I am so excited to be back! Every year, our seniors carry in flags from around the world which are represented by our student body. Countries where many of our student families are working; sharing Christ with the local community. 

As our Seniors carry in the flags, they place them at the front of the auditorium where they will stay for the entire year. 

Frau Hill who is one of our Senior advisors and a former German teacher does the Roll Call of Nations. She presents the flag for a certain country and the student (s) from that country can stand. There is a lot of clapping and cheering too! 

Dylan Brettany is the Director of BFA and gave the address for our opening ceremonies. He shared his desire of how globally minded Christians can change this world for Christ. He shared a few testimonies of how individuals who are faithfully trusting in Christ and willing to obey His calling can make a great impact! 

After the opening ceremonies are over, the high school students say good-by to their parents before they go into the rest of their school day. They have an all school assembly then have a "mock schedule" where they get a feel for their classes as they move from one to another. 

Middle school students go to the clay fields (soccer fields) behind BFA for some fun and games! 

We started off with splitting up the students into 4 teams. They had to come up with a team name that included all the first letters of their first names. They also had to come up with a cheer! 

We played some fun games where students had to say every name of their teammates as they moved from the end of the line to the front of the line. Teammates in line had to hold hands. The first team to reach our Middle School Chaplain, Daniel won! 

Here is our middle school in our student center located on the 5th floor of the main building. We have 51 students this year from 5th to 8th grade! After our outdoor games, we had a middle school assembly to learn some rules, procedures and how middle school is about making choices (hopefully good ones)! 

We split up into groups again and cycled through the classrooms coloring a puzzle piece. The "owner" of the puzzle piece wrote their name and colored about half of their piece. After they moved on, leaving their pieces behind, another group came in to color on a small portion. Then another group and so on until each piece had artistic drawings from 4-5 students. It is currently being assembled by our middle school administrative assistant before being placed on the wall in our student center. Someone (Ms. Custer) also got a hold of my phone and took a picture of me! 

We played some more games in the gym, mainly a game called sharks and minnows. There are 4-5 students who are sharks and chase everyone else as they run from one end to the other and try to tag as many as possible. Those who are tagged become minnows and have to sit down. They can also tag students running by who then become minnows as well. Fun game and a fun end to our first day of school!