Results tagged “publicschool”

Knitting: it's not just for grandmas anymore, but you already knew that. It's not just for crafty hipsteristas either. A group of teachers at Highland Heights Junior Public School have started a Knitting Club to help keep inner city kids out of trouble. Many of the students come from public housing, so the school relies heavily on fundraising for a extracurricular activities. When the idea of the Knitting Club was first conceived, the teachers didn't imagine that any more than 15 to 20 students would be interested.

Toronto is a city of trees. From centuries-old native oaks in our parks to imported Norway maples planted on lawns, Toronto’s greenery may not always be evident, but it is an integral part of the city’s life and history. Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF) and the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) have come together to create a series of tree tours that explore the urban canopy. Toronto Tree Tours offers guided walks as well as providing the maps required for self-guided tours. This week, Torontoist checked out the Dovercourt Park and Neighbourhood tour.

Health Canada reports that over half of Canadian kids aged five to 17 are not physically active enough for optimal growth and development. The number of overweight boys ballooned from 15 percent in 1981 to 35.4 percent in 1996; the percentage of overweight girls expanded from 15 percent to 29.2 percent. In less than a generation, obesity in children tripled. As anyone who has tried to lose a few kilos knows, it is easier to prevent overweight and obesity than to treat it.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to.

The 4th annual Regent Park Film Festival hits tonight, 6pm, at Nelson Mandela Park Public School (440 Shuter Street) with Wrecking Ball Videos, an evening of films made in Regent Park by youth trained at Regent Park Focus, not-for-profit organization that promotes health in vulnerable communities across Ontario. The festival continues until the 12th with a diverse programme that reflects on the lives and experiences of multicultural communities in Canada, based, as it is, in the multicultural Regent Park, Canada’s oldest (and largest) public housing community. Most importantly, though, all the screenings are free!

Toronto councillor Cesar Palacio is under fire: a charity he co-founded has reportedly been paying the mortgage on the building that houses his office.

St. Louis beat Detroit last night for a 2-1 game lead in the World Series, but nobody was watching it (only 12.8 million).

...They want you. They want you as a new recruit!

There's a lot of Henry Moore in the city of Toronto. After so many years of public school trips to the AGO, it took a fine art education to convince this writer that Moore wasn't a Canadian sculptor.

The Sorauren Park Festival is happening this Saturday. The party starts at noon with Maracatu Nunca Antes marching from Fern Avenue Public School. Because what’s a community party without a Brazilian marching band, really?

TTC Chair Howard Moscoe and injured TTC driver Bobby Lowe had a nice chat yesterday and cleared up a few things. Lowe actually said that his beef wasn't with the TTC but with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. They held up his cheque for five months and Lowe lost his apartment and had to break up his family because of that. Howard Moscoe also apologized for calling Lowe a liar on a radio show earlier in the week.

Mercer Union, a non-for-profit art gallery dedicated to the existence of contemporary art, is once again bringing you the good life; by providing a forum for the production and exhibition of Canadian and international "conceptually and aesthetically engaging art and related cultural practices". This is something that Torontoist can totally get behind. They pursue their primary objectives through activities that include exhibitions, lectures, screenings, performances, publications, events and special projects. This year, the Mercer Union Centre for Contemporary Art is proud to announce their third installment of Mercer Living - a bi-annual exhibition and fundraiser. This year's theme, Stellar Living, focuses on contemporary urban style, much like the style that we at Torontoist most naturally possess. (Or aim to at least). Stellar Living brings together the unique works of over fifty Canadian and international artists, like 3rd Uncle, Douglas Coupland, Shinobu Akimoto and loads other architects and designers who have created furniture, art and design items to be exhibited and then auctioned off at a gala fundraising event on May 10th in support of Mercer Union. The exhibition, which runs from April 28th to May 9th, (but closed Sundays) takes place at Givins/Shaw Public School, 180 Shaw St. For more details, visit Stellar Living.

Two Torontoist posts about TTC escalators in one day? It can only mean what everyone's been eagerly anticipating all year long: Escalator Safety Week. Yesterday's hipster hot-spot was undoubtedly the Yonge and Bloor subway station where Escalator Safety Week was launched with demonstrations by local public school students on how to properly use an escalator. I won't tell you everything there was to learn (you should've been there), but here are a few tips:

Torontoist will attempt to put the current state of Canadian-US foreign relations into perspective. As earlier reported, Canada’s refusal to participate in the President’s Missile Defense Shield, has led to a variety of fallouts - leaving the situation in a bit of disarray.