Over the past year (Fall 2016/Spring 2017) we established a new garden to the north of our existing garden. The new garden is based on the Medicine Wheel found in many First Nations cultures across North America. The intent of the garden is to educate our students about native species that were used by First Nations/Indigenous peoples of Ontario for medicinal/healing purposes. The garden contains cedar, raspberries,blackberries, yarrow, dogwoods and strawberry as well as others such as ironweed,sumac and black-eyed susan. Each quadrant of the Medicine wheel has native perennial species that bloom in the colour of the wheel in that quadrant (black,yellow,red and white). We will see how the garden comes back this spring (2018). 

In October 2017, we participated again in our fourth Take Me Outside Day (T.M.O.) The goals of this annual day are to encourage our staff and students to get outside and enjoy the green spaces within our community for learning, inquiry and recreation. During these school-wide days we have created environmental art, visited Milliken Park to participate in ecological literacy activities, held eco-scavenger hunts and schoolyard clean ups. The other goal of T.M.O. is to introduce students to the opportunities and importance of being outdoors and enjoying nature within their communities/province and take a break from computers,digital devices and television...Less Screen and More Green!!!
The annual Eco Schools kick-off for neighbourhood schools will be held again @ Macphail this year (November/2017). It was a great chance to team build and make connections with other schools in the area.


Over the past four years, we have had a Ride Your Bike to School day.Due to the great response from our students and parents we won a bike rack to supplement the one we already have. Teachers and the Principal rode their bikes on those days!! Well Done everyone! Don't forget to always wear your helmet. Every Day is Ride your Bike to School Day!!

                                       

Congratulations Macphail !! on maintaining our Platinum Eco School status last year !! Lets continue to keep up the hard work for stewardship and sustainability. Thank you to all who supported us in our environmental initiatives.

Environmental awareness and an emphasis on developing Ecological Literacy are very important to the learning goals at Agnes Macphail as well. We are currently a Platinum level EcoSchool and are continuing to develop initiatives to support learning in, for, and about the environment.

We created our Outdoor classroom/Butterfly garden as part of our school ground improvement project/funding to support Ecological Literacy and to use the environment as an integrating context to support our environmental education goals.
The garden was expanded again in the spring of 2014 with the addition of some indigenous shrubs such as Grey Dogwood, Nannyberry and Serviceberry as well as some Bottlebrush Buckeye. This past fall we expanded the garden again in anticipation of some spring planting initiatives. We have many varieties of native perennials (Daisy, Asters, Turtlehead, Black-Eyed Susan, Blue False Indigo, Bee Balm, Coneflower & Milkweed) in the garden.  Our hope is to also educate the community of the importance of these species for insects and birds so that they may plant similar native species in their gardens. In future, Agnes Macphail's garden may be the 'nursery' for this effort. Stay tuned....

In 2014/15 the Grade 5/6 Eco-Team was busy creating a presentation (The Monarch Project) on the importance of native species (milkweed) in our community. Classes grew milkweed in the classrooms and then transplanted them into our garden. They are doing very nicely...the leaves were used by Ms Chan's class to feed her Monarch caterpillars/pupae in the fall of 2015:).

Our T.R.I.I.P. (Tree Research Identification Information Project) will continue this year with the goal of placing laminated information cards including a QR code (wiki) on our new trees. You will be able to scan the code and find out more. We have a variety of native species such as Sugar Maple, Silver Maple, Hackberry, Kentucky Coffee tree, Red Maples and Honey Locust. Come and see our Native species Tree tour!!

Our Grade 6/7 & Grade 6 Eco Teams through 2015-2017 have been very busy!! We have been preparing for our Platinum Audit and strengthening our Platinum Eco Schools status.
We have been conducting waste audits and presenting our findings to the school. We conduct our classroom Eco Checks to present the Green Shoe award to classes who are correctly 'putting waste in its place'. We will continue making regular visits to Milliken park to learn about its unique woodlot and historical importance in our community. We are learning about landscape change over time and urban ecology as part of an inquiry into historical landscapes. We hope to continue with some stewardship opportunities within the park alongside the City of Toronto.
 Our school created a P.I.F.(Planet in Focus) claymation film illustrating that same theme and was awarded a screening at the Bloor Cinema in June 2016. The title is Mewizha (A Long Time Ago - Anishinaabe).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAGxpXTXOYA - Enjoy!

The 2016/17 Animation Club is created a new film for the 2017 PIF entitled 'Bee Where'  -see below:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOIaBqy7Jn8&list=PLX6TBV-Ob_ZF3jqgd4E746lz8EeAroCLq

Our second film premiered at P.I.F in June 2017! Great work Animation Club!!

Our Grade 7/8s under the direction of Ms. Wadia have been pursuing a number of initiatives to drive our sustainability efforts such as 'Walk to School Wednesdays' to raise awareness about simple ways you can combat GHG emissions.

We have a very active Environment Club / Eco Team ( Recycling/Lights Off campaign/Community Clean Up/Litter less lunch) at Agnes Macphail under the direction of our very dedicated staff.

Our goal is to develop some more stewardship and experiential learning opportunities through partnerships with local conservation organizations such as Friends of the Rouge, Rouge Valley Naturalists, T.R.C.A. and the City of Toronto.

                                                                             
Our students in the 2013/14 school year continued to learn about our local watersheds and to work to create awareness of the importance of clean water for healthy,vibrant ecosystems. The students have taken part in two stream studies through Eco Spark on the Little Rouge River and Highland Creek and have raised money (We Create Change) for well drilling in less fortunate countries where clean drinking water is an extremely valuable and rare commodity.

                                                                                            
We have joined with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Trout Unlimited Canada to take part in the Yellow Fish Road Program. The Yellow Fish Road program highlights the importance of understanding that our storm sewers are connected directly to our local rivers,lakes and streams. The students in Grade 4/5 paint (non-toxic latex) yellow fish near the storm sewers and deliver flyers to create awareness of this important water quality issue. To date we have painted over 70 storm sewers, delivered over 290 flyers and covered over 8 streets in our 'catchment' area that feed into our school.