Celebrating success at the Talent Show

YMCA Academy Arts, Beyond the Classroom No Comments

In what’s become an annual tradition at the Academy, we celebrated the end of the 2015 portion of our academic year with an all-school talent show. Student performers sang, danced, lip-synced, played instruments, screened short films, and even demonstrated their culinary skills.

The Talent Show has become a crucial community-building event for our learning community. Several performers (and one of the three MCs) were new students in September, and the Talent Show was a great opportunity to make new connections. It’s also a great showcase for the school’s expanding arts department —not to mention the perfect way to say goodbye in style to the 2015 portion of the school year.

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A warm day of skating at Nathan Phillips Square

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom No Comments

On Friday, December 11, most of the students of the YMCA Academy went on a skating trip to Nathan Phillips Square. Some people skated but others decided not to skate because the ice was melted and people did not want to get wet.

Some people focused on physical exercise while some people were happy talking and improving their social skills. We all bonded through a shared experience and we took pictures and made memories which we will always remember when we look at the pictures in the yearbook.

By Zachary Da Silva (YMCA Academy student)

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Volunteering at Habitat for Humanity

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community, Experiential Learning No Comments

On Tuesday November 24th and Wednesday November 25th, Academy students, staff, and a volunteer took part in the Home for the Holidays campaign at Habitat for Humanity.

“Habitat for Humanity GTA helps low-income families build and buy simple, decent quality affordable homes through a no-interest mortgage with payments set at less than 30 percent of gross income. This solution not only helps to provide available housing for families in need, it enables low-income families to build assets, reduce their dependence on other forms of social assistance and break the cycle of poverty.”

The Home for the Holidays campaign is a yearly opportunity for groups of youth to volunteer together at Habitat sites to help finish off houses so that the new owners can move in for the upcoming holiday season. Students at The Academy worked at two locations. One was in the beginning stages of construction and will likely be a series of houses being finished for next December and one was truly a Home for the Holidays as they are just putting the finishing touches on.

On day one the Green Industries class and the co-op class met up bright and early at Wellesley Station and travelled to our build site on Brimley Road. Upon arrival, we met and checked in with our Volunteer Coordinator Brenda and got suited into our safety gears (hard hats, steel toe boots, safety vests, and gloves). We were then given the build site safety speech and we learnt the Habitat Cheer (Oyee, a Swahili saying, which means “we can do it” in English) before starting our shift. While partner families have moved in to the first block of this particular site already, the second block is yet to be completed. And this is where the Academy crew came in to the rescue; the two classes helped paint, trim, and finish the last 9 homes on the second block of the site.

On day two, the Drama class and the Literacy class met up at Wellesley Station and this time headed to the build site on Birchmount Road. Like all the first day, the two classes met with their Volunteer Coordinator Darren, got suited into safety gears, heard the safety speech, and learnt the Habitat Cheer before their shift. As foundations is still being poured at the Birchmount Road site, our tasks were very different compared to the first day. Instead of painting and trimming, our students prepared the work site by stacking flooring joists and lumber in a large tent to keep the rain off as they will be used to frame the four houses next week. We also stacked prepared walls and floor boards. Some students worked on digging a 5 foot hole in the ground for a 300lb post on the corner of the property using a post hole digger. We all worked together as a team lifting heavy 3-400lb items. It was interesting to watch our supervisors calculate the weight of the items and how many people were needed to distribute the weight. They ensured that we kept it under 30lbs per person at all times (Yeh!! Math in action!!)

Despite the hard work, the groups had fun and were happy that we were able to give back to the community by helping families get into their home … hopefully just in time for the Holidays.

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Update: We just got word that the homes that were being painted on Brimley Road will be handed over to the families on December 9th!! These families will be Home for the Holidays!!

Cooking up a storm!

Katie Clay Beyond the Classroom, Student Spotlight No Comments

Do you like cooking? Every Wednesday there is a cooking club after school which starts at 3:45pm until about 5:00pm. It is happening in the orange room and sometimes in the childcare kitchen. It is open to all the students from the Academy and it is organized by Chef Katie C. In cooking club we learn how to shop, chop, grate, bake, and clean up the kitchen. It is a lot of fun to cook and eat with your friends. Just make sure that you wash your hands first before touching food!

By Andrea B. (Academy student)

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Annual Cedar Glen Trip

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

Cedar Glen 2015 That most wonderful time of year at the Academy has come and gone, but as usual, the memories created will remain for entire lifetimes. We are of course referring to our annual visit to YMCA’s Cedar Glen Outdoor Center. This year’s trip was even more memorable than past years because we were afforded the privilege of going for two nights instead of the usual one night. And with double the nights, comes double the fun.

Day 1

Our extra day at Cedar Glen came about as a result of our partnership with Evergreen Downsview coming to an end as an unfortunate consequence of cuts in their funding. In order to continue our school’s environmental stewardship, we reached out to Cedar Glen and were able set up an entire day’s worth of environmental stewardship working at their on-site farm. Our students spent the day harvesting Kale and small melons, mulching small trees, and removing thistle weeds. After dinner, we were treated to an hour of cooperative team building initiative games and ended the day with a camp-fire where we had the opportunity to eat delicious S’mores.

Day 2 and 3

With the hard work and environmental stewardship under our belts, day 2 was all about fun, games, and activities. Students were split into four groups and went about the property participating in various challenges and activities such as high ropes, low ropes, wall climbing, and maze games. After dinner, students got to partake in various field games, went on a night hike, and once again were treated to a camp fire with treats.

On the morning of our last day we channelled our inner Robin Hoods (or Legolas’ for te Lord of the Rings fans out there) and participated in archery as well as atlatl launching. After throwing the atlatls for distance and aiming the arrows for accuracy, students played an animal survival game, ate lunch and headed back home with another year of fun and memories behind us. We are all hoping for a two day visit again next year.

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Gallery One | Gallery Two