Overview
School Programs Overview
Sky Ranch has been providing a high quality educational experience to schools since 1992. The Outdoor Education program is designed to have a positive impact on students by combining four key elements:
1. Focused Academic Content
2. Strong Student Motivation Emphasis
3. Purposeful Play Based Instruction
4. High Quality Facilities
Focused Academic Content
Our program for schools is tailored to meet the specific curriculum needs of school teachers and administrators. Courses are designed to directly correlate to state curriculum and testing needs.
Strong Student Motivation Emphasis
Through our 55 years of experience as a summer camp, we have developed a capacity to motivate students of all grade levels to make positive changes in their lives. We bring that experience to our School Programs through a focused effort to achieve positive changes in student attitudes about school. We accomplish this through our team building activities, evening activities, and our course curriculum by incorporating character education elements into each of the course content areas. Each of these activities are designed to be an integral part of a camping experience that sends students back to school who have
1. a more positive vision for their future
2. are motivated to improve academic performance
3. see their teachers as a valued mentor in helping them achieve their goals
Purposeful Play Based Instruction
Sky Ranch is a camp and we like to play. However, we also exist for the sole purpose of impacting lives. We like to think of all our classes as “purposeful play” in the sense that we want the students to learn without even knowing they are learning. In that spirit, our classes are designed to appeal to students’ sense of wonder and their desire for fun. The curriculum is designed to be highly interactive and combines games and manipulatives using hands-on interaction with nature in an outdoor classroom. Our staff have college degrees and are especially skilled in communicating with students in an outdoor setting. They are well trained to make the learning experience fun and exciting.
High Quality Facilities
Sky Ranch is committed to providing schools with outstanding facilities to support their stay. We offer comfortable cabins, spacious dining facilities, general store and a host of recreational options. We are also committed to providing schools with access to high quality teaching facilities that are not available at a school campus. Our outdoor classrooms include access to beautiful lakes, ponds, meadows, and forests. We also provide outdoor teaching areas with structures such as teepees and a full horse livery to enhance our cultural programs. We provide outstanding indoor teaching facilities such as our new Nature Center which allows students to study environmental systems such as life cycles, ecological niches, carbon/nitrogen cycle, food chain, etc. by observing live organisms. Our team building areas consist of both low-element and high-element activities designed to challenge the heart and mind. All of these facilities are strategically arranged on the property to provide a fantastic camping and learning experience.
