Nov 22nd, 2012 – Cedar, Pine and Sumac Tea

YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning

Outdoor Skills: Reconnecting with Nature and Learning

On Wednesday November 21st, The YMCA Academy participated in a nature scavenger hunt at Evergreen Brickworks. After a discussion on how to sustainably harvest plant life, students broke off into small groups and headed into the wild to collect samples of Cedar, Pine and Sumac trees. The groups had 30 minutes to collect samples from each category and return to home base, where they were warmly welcomed back with ready to drink Cedar, Pine and Sumac hot tea. After a small wrap-up session and some interesting and informative facts, the group headed back to The Academy to discuss all they had learned about the outdoors.

Did you know Cedar Tea can stave off scurvy?!

Thank you Evergreen Brickworks!

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Nov 21st, 2012 – Peace Week Ceremony 2012

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community

YMCA’s all around the world are celebrating peace this week in many different ways.  The Central Y in downtown Toronto hosted its annual Peace Medallion Ceremony on Tuesday where the St. Jamestown Youth Council was recognized for their peace-building initiatives.  The Academy’s own Keara and Dakota were the emcees for this prestigious event which drew quite a crowd to celebrate youth and peace.  Special thanks goes out to Tristan, Omar, Allora, Yasin and Mikaela for helping the event run smoothly.  Peace out!

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Nov 21st, 2012 – Food and nutrition sciences

YMCA Academy Experiential Learning, Science and Math

Perogie Palaces and Lactose Free Cupcakes

 

The grade 12 food and nutrition sciences class takes a look at the many aspects of food and nutrition. Our current unit “Self and Others” takes a look at the personal and social reasons we eat.  In this unit, students are expected to plan and prepare foods based on various criteria.

For the first menu, students had to plan a menu taking into consideration economic, geographic, and seasonal factors.  Students were split into six groups of two and asked to plan a menu with the following criteria:

  1. Time (no more than 75 minutes to prepare, cook, clean-up, and eat)
  2. Cost (between $50-$60)
  3. Seasonal & Geographic (use fruits and/or vegetables that are available in Ontario during October or November

Once students found a recipe that fit the above criteria they made a presentation to their classmates outlining all the information as well as preparing a shopping list for all the ingredients. The class voted on making a dish called “Perogie Palace” as well as a dessert of apples, spices and vanilla ice cream.

The second menu had students planning a menu that had to meet a dietary need, and decided on making lactose free muffins. The ingredients for both menus were purchased at Loblaws during two separate class trips. Both menus were prepared and received very well by Academy staff and students, and were quite delicious. Stay tuned for our next cooking adventure update.

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Nov 20th, 2012 – Academy featured on Global TV

YMCA Academy In the News

On Monday, November 19th The YMCA Academy was featured on Global TV’s ‘Making a Difference’. The host Susan Hay spent several hours at the Academy in order to experience student life and gain an understanding of our individualized, student focused approach to education. The crew was on site for several hours observing classes (including some fun science experiments!), mindfulness circles, a physical education lesson our state of the art recreation facilities, as well as conducting interviews with our Head of School Don Adams, Central Y Vice President Mehdi Zobeiry and an Academy student who shared his experience of joining The YMCA Academy.

We were thrilled to have Susan Hay and her crew join us in support of our efforts to increase public awareness of learning style differences, learning disabilities and the services available to help young people flourish and succeed.

Nov 13th, 2012 – Remembrance Day Ceremony

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community

Today members of The Academy gathered to observe Remembrance Day. Students and staff shared personal reflections on peace and remembering as well as quotes and poems of peace. We took two minutes of silence to honour and remember those that have lost their lives or had their lives impacted by violence and war. We screened The Academy Peace Week video highlighting those peace promoting activities that the Academy students have participated in this school year. To close, all in attendance took a moment to create a written statement of peace, outlining how each of us could contribute to peace within ourselves, within our circle of friends and within our communities.

As a staff I am always so impressed by our student’s level of insight and compassion towards the world around them.

Peace.

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