Cooking Comfort Foods

Katie Clay Beyond the Classroom, Community, Healthy Living No Comments


With winter upon us and another lockdown in place Cooking Club has been making some warm and comforting meals to get us through!

Last week everyone made their version of fried rice. We discussed some key tips to making delicious fried rice including using leftover rice, sesame oil, and fresh ginger. Once again, there was a wide variety in the ingredients that students chose, including chicken, tofu, beef, shrimp, egg and lots of different veggies. The end results were even better than the take out versions.

This past week we made a fan favourite – macaroni and cheese. Impressively everyone made their mac n cheese from scratch, no KD in sight. We discussed how to make a roux for the base of the sauce and shared what kind of cheeses we were including. Some students chose to make a different kind of pasta dish to suit their needs, leaving everyone satisfied.

With just a couple sessions left for the year the club plans to make Potato Latkes next week ahead of Chanukah and then finish off 2020 (finally!) with some holiday baking.

Planting Native Species With the TRCA

Rein Tammemagi Beyond the Classroom, Environmental Stewardship, Science and Math No Comments


After being put to work outside in the cold rain and ice, during many of our Green Industries classes, I was hoping that Mother Nature would make it up to us for our trip to a natural area in Etobicoke to team up with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). Fortunately, we were treated to a sunny day and 18*C weather. The sun energized our group as we spent 2 hours of hours planting a variety of different native plant species, while learning the importance of establishing and propagating such species for ecosystem health and improving biodiversity. The students worked hard, and were rewarded with leftover halloween candy and lunch at the Sherway Gardens food court. The TRCA crew was so impressed with our effort and attitude that they are eager to maintain a partnership with our school and excited to invite us back out to a variety of different efforts and initiatives that they’re working on around the city.

Check out more photos from this event on our Facebook page!

Expedition to the Toronto Island!

MJ Duggan Beyond the Classroom, Events No Comments


This past Friday the middle schoolers took their afternoon studies outside and did an expedition to Toronto Island. The journey began with the boat ride over and ended with sticky marshmallow fingers, dirty pants and smiling faces. During these strange times it’s important to give students the opportunity to let loose and have fun for a while. That is absolutely what we did! The students collected wood and built a fire, explored the shoreline, and toured the island on bikes. We hope that we are able to do an excursion to the island some time soon – maybe next time there will be snow!

Play By Post Role Play

Brandon Stewart Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments


Thunder Clouds gather over the fantasy city of Eastmoore, where Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Bugbears, and Orcs coexist. After discovering that a flock of sheep has been stolen, a small group of adventurers find that their small time investigation is connected to events greater than they ever imagined. They ride off into an adventure of magic, trickery, tragedy, and heroism in a mysterious cloud city. Only by working together can they overcome the challenges ahead.

Play By Post Role Play is a shared story telling experience. It combines the adventure and cooperation of Dungeons and Dragons with the expression of Creative Writing. Students in the club are in charge of writing from the perspective of a character that they have created. Several times a week a new story post is created, which puts a challenge, puzzle, mystery, or adversary in conflict with the players. Players then consider how their character would respond to the situation and write a paragraph from the perspective of their character. Players can write back and forth, adding new narrative to their character’s actions in response to one another. With cooperation, and creativity they overcome the challenges.

Halloween: Designing a Haunted House!

MJ Duggan Arts, Beyond the Classroom, Community No Comments


Hello we are Sasha and Ryla, and we’re here to talk about the middle schools first ever collaborative project!

Since we are in the month of October we have decided to make and design a haunted house in honor of the upcoming holiday, Halloween. The first thing the middle school class did was brainstorm different themes for our haunted house. We then decided on the themes of this year’s YMCA Academy haunted House which are “World war 2 zombie apocalypse” and “zombie hospital apocalypse”. And for a bonus there will be a tax evasion room! Next, we brainstormed and discussed ideas for the layout of the haunted house. Finally, we began to build! We had some setbacks along the way but we kept on working hard and working together.

Everyone in the middle school class also made sure that the haunted house was safe and socially distanced due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the ongoing pandemic we are only allowing teachers, as well as staff and students in Grade 7/8 to go through the haunted house. Since the high school students won’t be able to go through the haunted house in person our handy dandy photographer and videographer, Lucas M, also known as McChicken, will be taking the high school students on a virtual tour of the haunted house.

Happy Halloween!