Environmental Stewardship

Yesterday, part of the school went to Brickworks as Part of the Healthy Choices program, and participated in our first outdoor session.  We had an invigorating afternoon outside learning about some of the native plant species on site, and learning how to make an outdoor fire – even in slushy, wet and wintery conditions.  Brian and Michelle took us into the woods to collect appropriate firewood, showed us how to prep wood to make it usable for a fire, and how to build both a log-cabin and teepee style fire.  We soon discovered that we had a few survivor men in our midst, as they worked diligently to start a fire despite the brisk breeze.  Our afternoon was capped off with a warm cup of delicious cedar tea.  Thanks to Brickworks for another great day!

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On Monday February 7th, the first group of students and teachers attended the Healthy Choices program at Evergreen’s Brickworks. We had an introduction to the program and to our facilitator, Aimee, and were introduced to the concept of Food Literacy and Healthy Active Living. Aimee taught us about food safety and oriented us to the kitchen. Afterwards, with some students practicing knife skills, and others doing measuring and mixing, we prepared healthy granola bars. The bars cooked as we took a tour of the historic Brickworks site, seeing where the bricks were made and the current Brickworks facility, including the outdoor ice rink. After our tour outside, we went back in to enjoy warm and gooey granola bars – delicious! The second group of students will go for their orientation next week. Everyone had fun, and we all look forward to continuing this amazing cross curricular project this term, and all of the students gave the afternoon a resounding “thumbs up” on the shuttle bus afterwards.

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Here are the pictures from our Environment Stewardship day at Evergreen’s Downsview Park, we planted dozens of baby trees and moved mountains of mulch!

For more information on Downsview park: http://www.downsviewpark.ca/

Tomorrow the Academy will be fulfilling its commitment to the environment by participating in environmental stewardship at Downsview Park. The YMCA Academy is one of evergreens environmental stewardship schools and we will be participating in this twice yearly environmental service project. We will engage in environmental rehabilitation projects such as tree planting and mulching we will also take a guided tour of Downsview Park. Downsview Park used to be a military base and has been rehabilitated by Evergreen. Some of the things we will learn about include the local ecosystem, native plant species, the importance of wetlands, and the necessity of humans taking an active role in protecting our environment. Check back for pictures tomorrow evening!

http://www.evergreen.ca/

http://www.downsviewpark.ca