A Silver Eco School

As the new year begins we are on our way planning and preparing to continue all of the hard work we started last year in becoming a certified Gold Eco School. We will continue with initiatives that have been active since the school opened such as our Recycling Club and our Environment Club, as well as our community initiatives such as tree planting and creating awareness around our local watershed and our connection to Rouge Park.

This year we initiated the Yellow Fish Road program with our students in the Environment Club. The Yellow Fish Road program is sponsored by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and Trout Unlimited Canada. The program highlights creating awareness around eliminating pollutants entering our street storm sewers as this water is untreated and flows directly into our local streams (Morningside Creek), rivers (Rouge River), and lakes (Lake Ontario). The program consists of painting yellow fish (latex/non-toxic/permanent) beside the storm sewers and delivering informational flyers, in the shape of fish, door to door in the neighbourhood of Morningside Heights. In total, the students painted 35 storm sewers on Nightstar Rd, Pogonia St. and Knotwood Cr., and delivered over 240 flyers.

In the spring we are looking forward to creating an outdoor classroom in the school yard. We received a grant last year through one of our teaching students and will be spending the funds on plants and shrubs that are indigenous to Canada. We want to create an outdoor learning area to support our initiatives around ecological literacy (learning about, in, and for the environment) We also hope to attract butterflies and a greater variety of birds to our school/community. We have put a bird house and feeder on our "green" roof and hope to increase the diversity of bird species this way as well.

A Feathered Friend/Wild in the City

Thomas L. Wells had a special visitor recently. A juvenile Great Horned Owl was seen in our courtyard by many of our staff/students. The owl remained in the courtyard for most of the morning perched on a light protruding from the wall. Later on, he/she was in some distress as some crows had spotted him and were trying to attack him/her. Staff alerted the office and he was brought into the school by Ms. Trahey. Later, our Guidance Counsellor Mr. Rogers helped to determine that he/she was okay and that it was in fact a Great Horned Owl. These owls grow quite large and are fairly common in this (Rouge Valley) area. He was kept safe at the office until a local wildlife conservation group picked him up to release him in a safer area.

Lately, the Environment club has been working on the problem of birds hitting the school and either injuring themselves or in some cases killing themselves. The amount of glass windows at TLW, and their size , may have something to do with this. The Environment club is working to make bird of prey silhouettes to help reduce this problem. Stay tuned for some photos.

An Outdoor Classroom Takes Shape

On May 28th a group of dedicated teachers,students from the Environment Club, and their parents broke ground on an exciting project at our school; the creation of a butterfly garden.The butterfly garden had been in the planning stages for the past 2 years under the leadership of Mr. Parish, Ms Teodosio,Ms Tsang and Ms. Sullivan. The students in the Grade 6 Environment Club for the past 2 years were also leaders in this initiative.

The project is the first phase in the design of an outdoor classroom to support the school's environmental initiatives in Ecological Literacy and to support the science curriculum. Ecological Literacy refers to learning in, for and about the environment. The butterfly garden is composed of indigenous/native species found in Ontario that will attract butterflies as a location to lay eggs and and as a source of food/nectar.

Hopefully, in the years to come the perennials planted in the garden will flourish and spread creating an attractive habitat, while at the same time creating an engaging and inviting learning grounds for our staff and students.