Annual Cedar Glen Trip

Zareh Demirdji Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

The 2019 voyage to Cedar Glen was one of the largest ones to date with 53 students making the trek up to the beloved outdoor education center. The maroon and navy squad buses made their way up on a beautiful and sunny Monday and arrived just after 11:00 am. After unpacking the buses, a quick welcome, and a lunch of meatball subs, staff and students heading towards Cedar Glen’s farm to give 64 pairs of helping hands to fulfil our yearly environmental stewardship duty. With glorious weather gracing our first day, the students and staff participated in fire building workshops, a skill needed for the culmination of the next day’s Academy Games, spent time in their advisory groups to increase group cohesion and solidarity, followed by a bit of free-time before dinner. The evening included the customary campfire and optional night hike to round of a great first day.

Day two was not so kind in terms of the weather, but was not as bad as what we have seen in past years. After breakfast, the two squads learned that their respective flags had been taken, with only a ransom note as a clue to what to do next. And thus began the morning’s first activity, a mystery game. After about 2 hours of sifting through clues and ciphers, the maroon squad ended up finding their flag first, shortly followed by the navy squad. After lunch, the second annual Academy games began with the maroon squad looking to defend its title. After all was said and done, the navy squad took the title away from maroon, who was disqualified on a technicality. Upon filling bellies with food, students enjoyed a bit of free time, followed by the evening’s programming of team challenges, followed by a Halloween and Cold Cuts themed dance party.

The last day was full of familiarity as students headed down into the valley after breakfast to partake in our traditional third day events. Groups alternated between animal survival, a game where staff and students simulate a forest ecosystem’s food chain, as well as archery and atlatl. With rain coming down during the last part of the activities, students walked back for a last lunch meal, after which we packed the buses and headed back to school, another successful trip in the record books.

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

Album One | Album Two | Album Three

The new Fresh & Fiery Academy Hot Sauce!

Dayna Dann Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning, Healthy Living No Comments

On November 11th, the Grade 7/8 class accepted the challenge to make a new and improved Academy Hot Sauce! Learning from last years’ experience and the reviews from our loyal customers the students made several changes to our secret recipe.

This year’s goal was to lower the acidity and vinegar taste of the hot sauce, while trying to keep its ability to last the same, some of the changes that were implemented include:

  • Changing from apple cider vinegar to regular vinegar
  • Lowering the vinegar amount
  • Adding carrots for sweetness

With several stations’ setup, the class made quick work of defrosting the frozen hot peppers which were harvested at the end of summer from out rooftop garden. We then proceeded to chop and sauté the peppers, while adding onions and tomatoes. Eventually boiling it all down and blending the fiery mix into our new and improved hot sauce mix, canned into mason jars and ready for sale for $7 each or 2 for $12 and all profits will go back to the garden fund.

This was a fun activity that had many curriculum connections. These connections were:

  • Math: Measurement and Volume
  • English: Blogs, read and writing the instructions
  • Science: PH levels
  • Business: Marketing, Brand management and Advertising

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

Global Climate Strike

Todd Harrison Beyond the Classroom, Community, Environmental Stewardship, Events No Comments

Last Friday, the school went to the climate march. The march began at 12pm at Queen’s Park and went along Wellesley Street, down Bay Street, along Queen Street past City Hall, and then back up University Avenue to Queen’s Park.

All the attendees were either students or adults that are concerned about the state of our planet/future. We were at the protest to tell our government that we are disappointed that they are not doing something to save our planet. We were there to also tell them that if they don’t do something now we will not have a future.

The event had a big impact. “It’s thousands of people marching down the street,” says Quinn. “I hope the government will listen because if they don’t, the human race will become extinct because of the amount of carbon in the air.”

For some students, the event was challenging. “I thought that it was very crowded,” says Claire. “There was so much cheering going on.”

But regardless, Friday’s Climate Strike made some clear connections to what our students are learning. “It demonstrated how people want to change the government,” explains Logan. “In Civics class, we talked about how important climate change is in relation to how it impacts people and society.”

By the Grade 10 Civics class

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

YMCA Academy Community Garden

Dayna Dann Beyond the Classroom, Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

The YMCA Academy is located right in the heart of the downtown core, however we do our best to stay as connected to the environment as possible. We have a green wall, plants all around the school and even a vermicompost! One of the highlights of our annual YMCA Cedar Glen trip is the time we spend on the farm, planting, harvesting and caring for the grounds. It is so nice to see the students getting their hands dirty, being outside away from technology, and finding relaxation in this work. For all of these reasons we decided to build our very own urban garden on one of the terraces connected to our school!

Step 1: Design
Our Green Industries class designed sub-irrigated planter boxes. With the location of the terrace, distance of a water source and direct sunlight, it was important that the planter boxes were designed with these limitations in mind.

Step 2: Create
Students in our Gardening Club, and Green Industries class worked together to build and assemble the bins. Building these bins required students to have a strong grasp of the design, collaborate with each other and follow the design instructions.

Step 3: Prepare
Our Personal Fitness class spent the morning hauling heavy soil and materials to the terrace garden. Each of the bins required several bags of soil so the team had lots to carry! Students were instructed on proper carrying techniques to avoid injury.

Step 4: Plant
Every student in the school was assigned one plant to bring in for the garden. Once they were all brought in our Green Industries class organized and planted them. Students brought in an excellent variety of herbs, vegetables, fruit, and flowers that attract bees and butterflies.

Step 5: Care for
As a community of staff, students and volunteers we all play a role in caring for our garden. Depending on the weather, the gardens are watered once a week and checked on each day for changes, needs and the opportunity to harvest.

Step 6: Harvest
The fresh vegetables in the garden were harvested by students daily, many vegetables and herbs such as cherry tomatoes, chives, and green were harvested for lunch time snacks and cooking club. The majority of hot peppers were harvested by the students in the 7 / 8 program and made into hot sauce!

It has been incredible to see the impact the garden has had on our school community since the garden has been built and begins to grow. Many students and staff have expressed how much they love getting the opportunity to spend time outside and around the plants. Many of us are over the moon when something begins to grow, fruit, or is ready for harvest. One of our students in particular has expressed that a quick visit to the garden helps to settle him, reduce stress and anxiety and gets him ready to focus in class.

Overall the garden has been a great success and we are looking forward to expanding our garden even more next season! We might plan the Garden Design London-style as we are hoping to try out new ways.

Take a look at our Hot Sauce blog to see what we did with this years harvest and check out the rest the rest of the pictures on our Facebook page!

Community Garden: Design, Create, Prepare | Community Garden: Plant, Care, Harvest

Annual Cedar Glen Trip

Ada Miller Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning No Comments

Another year, another trip to Cedar Glen. The much beloved three day, two night trip was a resounding success. The weather was a mix of cool, wet weather, and beautiful snow of the course of the 17th, 18th, and 19th of October. This did not stop the students and staff from enjoying the great outdoors.

As has become tradition, the school’s environmental stewardship was spent working on the on-site farm. This year the staff and students helped to plant garlic, and blackberries as well as helping to prepare the farm for the winter. Despite the cold, perseverance was paramount, as the campfire and night hike were overwhelmingly popular activities.

Overnight a thin blanket of snow covered the ground as the first annual Academy Games kicked off. These events had teams of staff and students going from station to station doing a variety of activities such as trivia, archery, and fire-building. Excitement was high as the teams made their way back to enjoy a nice meal, and afterwards, a dance party!

Time wore on, giving way to a mixture of excitement and sadness, excitement for getting back to the routine of daily life, yet a longing to remain in such a fun and beautiful place. Such is the nature of the trip, and it gives us something to look forward to next fall.

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

Album One | Album Two | Album Three