There are so many reasons to book a school trip to Muskoka Woods. Nestled in 1,100 acres of lush forest on the shores of Lake Rosseau, Muskoka Woods offers an unparalleled setting for outdoor education. With a wide range of activities and exciting programming, from the high-adrenaline ropes course to serene nature hikes, campfires, and seasonal pursuits like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and tubing, Muskoka Woods provides an immersive learning experience that takes your students way beyond the traditional classroom setting.
What outdoor education will teach them
Outdoor education offers students learning experiences that transcend tests and textbooks and play a pivotal role in holistic learning. With the aim of nurturing a child’s physical, emotional, moral, psychological, and spiritual dimensions, a holistic approach to learning helps your students develop and hone important life skills including:
Collaboration and teamwork
Spending time outdoors often involves team activities that foster invaluable communication and teamwork skills that your students will use for their entire lives. Collaboration is a cornerstone of Muskoka Woods’ programming and your students will rely on their classmates to help them complete the objective in activities like the aerial trust dive, for instance. For this challenge, individual students put their trust in their peers to first, pull them up to a perch from which they’ll jump, trusting their peers to belay them safely back down.
Resilience
Resilience helps people adapt and thrive in the face of life’s uncertainties. Outdoor education encourages students to take risks and emphasizes process over perfection as on Muskoka Woods’ ropes course, for example, where students have to learn how to use the harness and practice a new and unfamiliar activity. Resilience is also developed through building strong connections (with classmates, teachers, and peers), which all of the activities at Muskoka Woods help to foster.
Leadership
Leadership-focused activities empower students to take on new challenges and, in doing so, discover their inner leader. Whether it’s devising a strategy to help your team come first in crate stacking or cheering your classmates on during a beach volleyball match, Muskoka Woods offers abundant leadership opportunities.
Creativity and critical thinking
Outdoor education supports interdisciplinary learning, allowing students to explore connections between science, art, and history. The comprehensive approach to learning builds a skill set for tackling complexity and change throughout their careers.
Responsibility and environmental stewardship
Spending time immersed in the great outdoors — whether it’s traversing Muskoka Woods’ five-kilometre snowshoeing trail or sailing down a winter slide — teaches students to value nature. Students gain firsthand experiences of ecosystems, biodiversity, and sustainability, fostering a life-long sense of responsibility toward the preservation of the natural world.
Healthy habits
All of the outdoor programming at Muskoka Woods promotes physical fitness, from team sports like flag rugby to walking around the grounds to complete the photo scavenger hunt. Spending time outdoors is also beneficial to mental health for its ability to reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance cognitive function. Muskoka Woods creates a correlation between outdoor time and well-being, encouraging students to incorporate these healthy habits into their lives.
What outdoor education looks like at Muskoka Woods
Muskoka Woods’ exciting outdoor educational programming highlights include:
Ropes course
The largest ropes course of its kind in Canada, the course at Muskoka Woods leaves an impression on its student visitors! The ropes course at Muskoka Woods plays host to some of the camp’s most-talked about activities like the balance challenge — a contest of poise and steadiness as students from different teams compete to see who can maintain their balance the longest on a beam suspended in mid-air. The giant swing is another ropes course favourite whereby individual students place their trust in their peers as they’re hoisted 70 feet into the air before embarking on a swing of a lifetime. It’s all about teamwork, trust, and unforgettable moments. And the fun doesn’t end there! The ropes course also includes high ropes, crate stacking, the aerial trust dive, outdoor climbing, the drop zone, and a low ropes course.
Nature hike/snowshoeing
Muskoka Woods’ five-kilometre hiking trail is a place for students to immerse themselves in nature during the warmer months but when the first snow falls, it morphs into a snowshoe track, giving guests the opportunity to try their hand (or feet!), at a classic Canadian winter activity.
Archery tag
Students use the technical fundamentals of archery to play this fun, team-based game, which fosters collaboration and leadership skills and is available year-round. The arrows used in the game are padded and completely safe.
Broomball
During the winter term, students can try their hand at broomball, which incorporates all the fun of hockey — without the skates!
Beach volleyball/snow volleyball
Whether they’re playing on the sandy beach courts along the shoreline in the spring or landing a snowy spike in the winter, students will have a soft spot to land when they dive to score the game-winning point!
Winter slides
A privilege reserved for those students who visit during the winter months, winter slides position students in a winter oasis, which provides them the opportunity to connect with the outdoors while having some nostalgic fun!
Team building games
Year round, students participate in fun games meant to foster closer connections with their classmates, like the human knot. To play, students stand in a circle and join each hand to two other people in the circle, forming a knot. The objective is to then untangle the knot of their own hands without letting go, which develops communication skills while strengthening classroom friendships!
Other activities
No matter the season, Muskoka Woods is committed to learning through adventure so you can choose whether you visit in the fall or spring or whether you and your group will be bundling up for some winter fun! Many of the sports and activities on offer are designed to fit in with phys-ed, arts, and science curricula and all activities provide students with opportunities to embrace new experiences and develop valuable life skills. Read on for the full list of seasonal, fun-filled adventures that await!
Fall and Spring:
Archery
Archery Tag
Beach Volleyball
Disc Golf
Dodgeball
Flag Rugby
Floor Hockey
Giant Swing
Golf Driving Range
High Ropes
Hike
Indoor Climbing Wall
Indoor Curling
Leisure Sports
Low Ropes
Pump Track
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Pickleball
Scooterboard Hockey
Scooters and Longboards
Team Building Games
Tennis
Ultimate Frisbee
Winter:
Archery Tag
Bracelet Making
Broomball
Cross Country Skiing
Dodgeball
Floor Hockey
Giant Swing
High Ropes
Indoor Climbing Wall
Indoor Curling
Low Ropes
Scooterboard Hockey
Snowshoeing
Snow Football
Snow Rugby
Snow Volleyball
Team Building Games
Snow Tubing
Winter Slides
The incredible variety of outdoor educational experiences on offer at Muskoka Woods means that guests not only have the time of their lives, but that they learn valuable life skills that will shape the person they are now and the person they will become.
Visit schools.muskokawoods.com to sign your students up for a trip that promises fun and adventure with the bonus of important personal skills development.
