Jun. 29th, 2011 – Craig Verner’s stencil workshop

YMCA Academy Arts, Community, Experiential Learning

In addition to flowers, plants and wind chimes, the toddlers down at the Metro Central childcare can now enjoy some art in their outdoor space.  The Academy’s grade 11 media arts class just completed an exciting unit on multi-layered stencils led by artist and creative facilitator Craig Verner.  Students came up with ideas for stencils of sports equipment, toy robots and greenery that would spruce up the space in an artistic way.  The stencils were an interesting addition to a beautiful hand-painted mural by Zack.  Thanks to Kathryn at the daycare centre, Craig for a great workshop and the media arts students for their talent and collaboration!

Visit Craig Verner’s Website

Jun. 15th, 2011 – Social Justice in Action!

YMCA Academy Beyond the Classroom, Community

Congratulations, YMCA Academy students on making us proud once again!  We received this “thank you” from Free the Children for all of your outstanding work and commitment on social justice and environmental issues.

This year has gone by quickly, but let’s recap and celebrate some of our amazing projects: We Day, Halloween for Hunger, The Vow of Silence, Peace Week, The Good News Newsletter, Greening of the FDC childcare playground, Earth Week, Earth Hour, tree planting, Free Hugs, That’s Not Fair to Me, seeing Dr. Jane Goodall speak, Sasha’s presentation on her work with Free the Children in Kenya, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and the Healthy Choices Program with Brickworks!

Whew, it’s been a busy year of doing good, Academy students!  You are a shining example of youth committed to social justice – well done!

Academy students with staff at We Day!
Tree planting at Downsview Park for Evergreen
Academy students donating food during the Halloween for Hunger food drive
Cleaning up Budapest Park during the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Academy Peace Tree created by students for Peace week
Cleaning up our local parks on Earth Day
Academy students take a vow of silence for an entire day

Free the Children Website

Evergreen Website

Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup Website

Earth Day Canada Website

Peace Week Website

Jane Goodall Foundation Canada

Jun. 7th, 2011 – Healthy Choices celebration pics

YMCA Academy Community, Experiential Learning, Healthy Living

Academy & Evergreen Healthy Choices program celebration

On June 6th , the Academy staff and students gathered with Evergreen’s Healthy Choices team to celebrate the Healthy Choices program end. The grade 10 Physical Education class researched and planned the menu, organized logistics and (with the help of the Managing Personal and Family Resources class) generated a grocery list to feed 45 people.

Jamie, John, Jaiden, Jacob, Joseph, Chad, Grant and Theo facilitated the menu with ALL students and staff contributing to the meal preparation.  The celebration meal was a huge success. The menu was delicious and the preparation flawless.

Thank you to all who made this possible!

Special thanks to Aimee and Brian at Evergreen. You were amazing program leads.

Thanks to the program funders:

This program introduced students to a variety of healthy active choices. A few highlights include:

  • Food prep skills – Everyone at the Academy has knife safety mastered
  • More healthy nutrition options with mastery of “from scratch recipes” – KD no more! We are all able to make Ooey Gooey Mac and Cheese!
  • Food labels – Now we will read them!
  • Local foods – Now we will support them!
  • We are inspired to cook more often
  • We are more familiar with the Toronto trail system – we biked and hiked and walked (sometimes in the rain!)
  • We were outdoors! In rain and shine we built shelters, fires and maps

Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page!

May 26th, 2011 – Ubisoft visits the Academy!

YMCA Academy Community, Experiential Learning, Science and Math

The grade 11 media art class, grade 9 information tech class and grade 10 careers class gathered to listened to an engaging presentation by video-gamer extraordinaire Rick Hoskinson from UBISOFT in Toronto.  He spoke about his illustrious career in the gaming industry and the many popular games that he has worked on over the years.  He also gave students some guidance around post-secondary programs in a variety of jobs the technical, artistic and business sides of things.  Best game of the year:  Barbie Horse Adventures!!!  Thanks, Rick, and keep up the good work.

May 24th, 2011 – Evergreen Stewardship Pictures

YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning

On Friday May 20, The YMCA Academy celebrated its third anniversary of stewardship with Evergreen’s Downsview Park!  Staff and students alike enjoyed our first warm sunny day in weeks as we worked together to weed, plant trees and mulch our hearts out.  We were able to entirely weed a native plant nursery (the one that we helped prep last fall), and to plant 60 trees.  As a further sign of our good fortune, an ice cream truck appeared like a mirage at lunch time, ensuring that everyone enjoyed a well deserved treat break after enjoying delicious Breakfast Club sponsored sandwiches.  What began three years ago with two classes has now evolved into a whole school fall and spring outdoor ritual of environmental stewardship. We now converge upon Downsview en masse twice year as part of our YMCA Academy commitment to service learning, community partnership, authentic learning and environmental leadership.  As always, well done last Friday on everyone’s part – you did us proud once again!

Check out the rest of the pictures on our Facebook Page!