Outdoor School
A Unique Educational Experience
Camp Classen's Outdoor School first opened its doors for schools in the 1980s. Since then hundreds of thousands of students have come through our gates to learn about natural wonders and rediscover how special their fellow students and teachers really are.
Camp’s Outdoor School empowers teachers to take their classroom outside, connect with their students, and create memories that are not only pleasurable, but aligned with PASS standards. Activities are hands-on and placed-based so students are not only learning key concepts, but relating it to very real and specific parts of the real world.
We believe that the teacher is an essential building block in the acquisition of knowledge. It’s their presence within the Outdoor School’s instruction that connect school concepts, to life learning, to retained knowledge. For this we provide awesome facilities with a comprehensive range of curriculum & program support for your teachers, and a pricing scale that cannot be matched!
The Outdoor School Experience Camp Classen is the most unique facility of its kind. It is both easily accessible from main highways and a reasonable distance from many schools in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. It also covers 2,400 extra-ordinary acres in the Arbuckle Mountains. The camp’s facilities and campuses are designed to accommodate multiple student ages and needs at the same time.
The Camp’s ecological diversity is a treasure in itself. Between its lakes, mountain tops, streams, fields, and waterfalls - the Eastern forest biome interlaces with that of the Western plains. This diversity and natural beauty make it ideally suited for hands-on, place-based learning. Its facilities are not only tuned to complement and support academic programs, but to promote and encourage leadership, teamwork, value training, trust, self-worth, and understanding for students.
Activities:
These are some but not all the activates offered at Camp Classen's YMCA Outdoor School program. The specific schedules are customized for each school to meet the needs of the students, teachers and camps needs.
- Warren Mountain ecology and biomes hike
- Lake Classen and Lake Guy James water cycle hikes
- Lick Creek and Rose Ridge Fossil trails
- Water Labs
- Fossil Labs
- Animal Ecology
- Skull Detectives and Tracks
- Instincts for Survival
- Multiple levels of Orienteering courses
- Astronomy
- Camp Fire
- Boating
- Archery
- Challenge Course
- Horseback rides
- Horse science and safety
- Square Dances
- Night Sensory Hikes
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A little bit about our Philosophy... Whether you call it environmental education, experiential education, outdoor education, hands on learning, place-based studies, or just camp - our goals are the same:
- To promote the greatest retention of knowledge possible
- For students to enjoy learning and become life long learners
- To give students concrete examples that apply to classroom learning
- To promote sustainable responsible stewardship of the environment / to make environmental decisions based on the big picture good of our civilization.
- To help students value themselves, others, and their environment
"YMCA Mission: To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all."
YMCA Camp Classen. www.itsmycamp.org. 10840 Main Camp Rd. 580-369-2272.580-369-2284fax