Year 4 Thorndon Country Park
Year 4 had an amazing time on their school trip to Thorndon Country Park on Friday 27th April for their local history project linked to World War II. Upon arrival they were greeted by two friendly rangers who marched them to the visitor’s centre to put their belongings away before making their way into the woods.
After an important safety talk, the children were taken to their first activities. The day saw the children collecting grenades (pine cones) for use later in the day, building shelters in the woods to disguise and protect them from the elements and enemy eyes, building stretchers using the woodland logs and tarpaulin and lifting each other off the ground as they would have done to transport casualties during the war, looking at remains from old shrapnel and huge metal target practise boards that had been left in the woods from training exercises, and visiting real life trenches where they practised their camouflaging skills as well as trying to sneak up on the guards (teachers) to steal the grenades they collected earlier!
The children were buzzing throughout the entire day and came home a little soggy, muddy and tired, but with huge smiles and happy brains after all of the learning and fun they experienced throughout their visit.
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Phoebe's recount of the trip
On Friday 27th April, Year 4 went to Thorndon Country Park, Brentwood, to experience an amazing World War 2 day which is our topic at this moment.
When I first arrived at Friars School I was buzzing like an excited bumble bee. Also, despite the weather being in a mood, I was thrilled we were still going out of school for an amazing day ahead.
When we first arrived, we were greeted by rangers (they were both girls) and they walked us into the woods. First we had to visit the toilet and put our things away. Then they told us safety rules.
The first activity we did was to find as many grenades (pine cones) as we could. Some were soggy, some were small also the last one I found was a big grenade. It was super fun.
The second activity was to make a shelter out of very long sticks. I worked with Lucy, Oscar, Eren and Ryan. Team work makes the dream work! We worked together to make an amazing, effective shelter like the soldiers might have used.
Then we got passed some plastic material and some long sticks to make a stretcher. I went into the stretcher and they lifted me up. It was so fun! Then we lifted Lucy.
Then it was time for lunch!
After lunch, we walked over to a tree with some string on it – nearby there was some metal that the soldiers used to shoot through for target practice. There was a small target, and a big one. The big one had a massive hole in it where it had been fired at with a powerful gun!
Next, we walked into mud (icky sticky) then walked up a steep hill where we found a trench. A trench is a ditch that is between two small mounds. The soldiers used these for cover against enemy fire.
Finally we sang soldier songs whilst we were walking back to the yellow SBC coach. It started like this, “Everywhere we go!”
It was a fantastic day because we did amazing, interesting things and it was a load of fun. We learned a lot about WW2 which was sad and also interesting, and we learned about lots of things they did like camouflage and it was wonderful to see all of this.