REEL Program- Clyde M. York 4-H Center

It was great to see so many familiar faces from REEL events such as homeschool days this week at our summer camp programming!

Three of our most local counties involved in school day events and homeschool days were here — Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Fentress!

It was great to see many of your students and their familiar faces! 😁 - Pate

SAVE THE DATE! 🌳🦌🐟🎣🪵⛺️

We’re in the midst of our 4H camping season at the center, but we want to go ahead and share dates for fall programs! We are so excited to announce over 5 programs across 7 days this fall! Dates are always subject to change on the premise of registered attendees and weather, but go ahead and put these in your calendar! 🗓️📝

Thanks for a great overnight trip, Homestead BETA Club students! 🔥🔨🪢💦

We had an amazing time with students from Homestead’s BETA club on their end of the year reward trip! Students were able to create amazing leather designs with Shayla and Amanda! Everyone zipped across our camp’s lake on the zipline with Ethan and Emma! Just underneath them, our lifeguard team led students through canoeing and kayaking! We topped off the day with team building components at the ropes course with Kristi and Emmy!

On the night before, students were able to have an amazing campfire and s’mores with ALL of our seasonal summer staff ahead of their duties during 4H camp! We even went on a night hike later, finding snakes and frogs out in the wild under the stars!

Thanks for a great 3 days, FIS! 🥾🏕️🐟🪳🌲

Last week, we had the BEST time with our friends from Williamson County who have been joining us the last few years with our REEL program! These students stayed 2 nights and 3 days with us as they covered an entire wildlife theme!

DAY 1️⃣ Our awesome students had a great introduction to wildlife species, on land and in water! Students were able to head to the lake for canoeing and kayaking with Ryder & Pate! Right next to the paddlesports area, students looked at macroinvertebrate species with Kristi and Zion! Emma and Shayla led students all across our trails to further examine our center’s water in a data collection hike! Students learned how to navigate without modern technology in the form of a reliable compass wirh Ethan! FIS students also learned about various invasive species with Amanda and Emmy!

Day 2️⃣ With topics about Tennessee in mind, Amanda and Emmy led students through a habitat hike, observing over 30 different species of animal and wildlife in a discussion of where critters live! Kristi and Brooklyn led students across a plot sampling activity. Ethan led students in challenging and rewarding wildlife games that tested their knowledge about how energy and food flows! We looked at the food web in greater detail with Emma and Shayla in the form of owl pellet examinations! Finally, students soared sky high on the zipline with Jo, Louis, and several of our awesome summer staff!

Each night, students enjoyed a campfire and s’mores while others went on a night hike that covered the 5 senses and history of our once POW camp!

Check back tomorrow for a look back on Homestead’s day at camp!

Thanks for a great day, Sycamore Elementary 4th grade students! 🪢🏕️🦉🥾

🥾 We saw animals near and far, learning about where our favorite critters live in the natural world as Amanda led students through a habitat hike!

🏕️ Students learned about the best possible way to survive in harsh conditions in shelter building using only natural materials with Ethan down at our peninsula!

🦉 Emma and Shayla led our students for the day through the energy that flows through the food web as everyone had the chance to examine the contents of owl pellets!

🪢 Kristi led students through team building exercises through our ropes course as individuals were able to swing high and low, learning that is truly takes a group effort to accomplish some tasks in life!

THANK YOU once again to our friends at Sycamore for another amazing day!

Thanks for a great day, Bledsoe County Middle School 8th Grade! 🏹🚀🗺️🪢

🏹 Our 8th grade students for the day had the chance to send arrows down the range at high speeds at archery today with Jo & Ryder!

🚀 Rockets were sent sky-high with Shayla & Pate! Students had the unique opportunity to explore Newton’s Laws of Motion and how an object moves when a force acts upon it. To finish the class, students explored the engineering design process and built bottle rockets in small groups!

🪢 Kristi & Emma led our awesome students in ropes course elements! Students tested their personal stamina and built up their team spirit with over 10 different obstacles!

🗺️ Ethan led students through an interactive GPS course! Students had the opportunity to find various waypoints across the Heart of Camp in small groups!

We are so thankful to have had the chance to spend the day with these 8th grade students!

CELEBRATING TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! We had the BEST time with our friends at Pine View Elementary on Friday! Pine View brought students from ALL 10 grades to our center in a wide range of activities!

Kristi led students through the ropes course, life under a log, and nature art! Students learned about team work to start the day at the ropes course through over 10 different ropes course elements! Our youngest students of the day were able to explore the smaller side of the ecosystem in life under a lot, and then create nature art about it!

Ethan led students through an interactive take on the engineering design process, where students had the unique opportunity to build structures out of woody vegetation based off of a set of criteria. Ethan led more students through the ropes course later that day!

Amanda led students all across the center on our trails! Students learned about the different species of animals and where they live through a habitat hike that went across 3 specialized forest cover types, with varying water amounts and tree species. Shortly after, our youngest students of the day looked at the storybook trail, learning all about strawberries!

Jo and Anna led students through canoeing and kayaking down at our camp lake! Some students navigated our center’s waters in what was there first ever time in paddlesports!

Our awesome teachers of the day had the chance to utilize our center’s wide range of recreation opportunities! Students went from the playground to Gaga and so much more!

We are so thankful for our team of educators who are the backbone of our program, allowing students to have these unique experiences they may not get to see inside the classroom!

Looking back, we are honored to have shared our center with so many teachers already! We are beyond excited to see 5 full days of programming and meeting new teachers ahead next week!

Thank you to ALL educators for what you do!

We are excited to welcome 8 schools to our facility in the months of April and May at the center! 27 different grade levels will be represented on these trips! We are honored to serve several public, private, and homeschool students across the state this spring at our home here in Crossville!

Thanks for a great Friday, Faith Christian Academy! 🎣🚀🌳

💥 We kickstarted our May field trip season with FCA’s 1st -8th graders in a HUGE educational AND recreational day trip at our center on May 1st! Students were able to fish at our catfish pond, catching bass, catfish, and bluegill to start the morning with our educators Amanda and Ethan! We canoed and kayaked down at the lake and saw wildlife along the way on a habitat hike with Kristi and Pate! Students were able to fire arrows down our archery range — some for the very first time! We saw rockets created by these students go sky high! Faith Christian Academy finished the day ziplining across the lake and creating their very own leather craft to take home with the help of another awesome member of our staff, Jo!

We are so excited to welcome more schools to our site these next few weeks!

Earth Week 2026 🌎

We kickstarted our week hosting an advanced forestry homeschool program for the first time! Students from across the region gathered to look at deeper details into our forests! Students looked at tree aging, wood products, estimating timber value, and so much more! To finish off our day, our awesome homeschool students got to take home their own tree cookie coasters and suspended bird feeders!

On the very next day, we welcomed our friends from South Cumberland Elementary back to our campus! These 2nd graders explored erosion concepts with our stream table and full-scale model, how strawberries grow on the storybook trail, and even looked at wildlife adaptations with more hands on activities!

We looked at concepts near and dear to our planet all week! We are so excited for what the future holds with 8 more schools coming in May and a fall filled with even more homeschool days!