Two Coyotes Wilderness School has a number of summer camp offerings this summer that bring students outside to connect with and learn from nature.twocoyotes.orgMore information about Two Coyotes Wilderness School, its summer camps, and registering can be found at or by calling 203-843-3112twocoyotes.org

Camp Director Karianna Rosenberg - while groups of students learned about forts and shelters at the camp's Newtown location on July 12 - said this summer's students so far have been "great" and "wonderful."

.Two Coyotes Wilderness School is a nonprofit organization with locations in Newtown, Granby, and New Fairfield. Its Newtown location is at Sticks and Stones Farm, 201 Huntingtown Road. It is "dedicated to nurture healthy, whole human beings through building self-awareness, community, and connecting people to nature," according to its website,

Ms Rosenberg said camps are available for different age levels and are offered in groups. The Forts and Shelters camp, for example, was offered the week of July 10 and was offered to three different age groups.

Down a trail from where Ms Rosenberg was working, camp mentors Tyler von Oy and Morgan Evans were huddled with one group of mostly 9-year-old students around them on July 12. Mr von Oy was describing different types of shelters and when they would be best used. He showed the students how to build small models of the shelters with sticks available around the group.

"What I have made here is called a lean-to," said Mr von Oy, "because it is open on one side."

Up the hill, camp mentors David Wloch and Marie Comuzzo were working with younger children, between 5 and 7 years old. The group was eating snack near a teepee that Ms Rosenbery said was donated to the school and set up last year.

Ms Rosenberg said one new camp program, Forest Ninja Training, this year was offered in June. The program, she said, blended perfectly with the school's philosophy of learning to use the elements and nature. Students learned different types of martial arts from the camp mentors, according to Ms Rosenberg.

Summer camp offerings change weekly and are scheduled through August. Upcoming camps, according to the school, include Advanced Survival, which will have children between 10 and 14 learn how to survive in the wild; Scout Tracker, which will teach students between 10 and 14 how to become "invisible" in the forest; Fire, Wood and Stone, which will have children between 5 and 13 learn in groups about using nature's "raw materials to make handmade tools and projects;" and Wildwood Adventures, which will have students between 5 and 8 partake in wilderness fantasy adventures.