On Wednesday, 11th July pupils from year 3 at St. Mary’s primary went on a school trip to X-Platoon. X Platoon is located near Wheatley Hill. It is an outdoor adventure place, which also teaches you how to survive out in the wild. This experience is dedicated to children of all ages. Our instructors were called Steve and Andrew.
Our first activity was to sharpen some wood with a sharp knife. First Steve explained to us how to use a knife safely. Then we all went to get our own knife and piece of wood. We found it quite difficult to get the right angle, (45o) to carve the wood. You had to do a quick movement to sharpen the wood, but eventually we all got the hang of it.
The second activity was where we got the opportunity to explore some dens that had already been made. Den number 1 was the most luxury den as it had a raised bed and room for a big fire. Den 2 was most of our favourites, as it had a small fire in the middle. It was tepee shape and had a little chimney at the top.
We had lots of fun at lunch time as we got to sit around a fire, which kept us toasty and warm whilst we ate our lunch.
After lunch we went into groups and designed and made our open dens using material that was in the forest. Each group had a team leader and were given some string and a knife to use if they needed them. When we had made them, each group had to explain to the others what they did, which was really fun!
Next we used a fire steel to light a cotton wool ball on fire. Most people found these very tricky, but most of us were determined to do it on our own. Our final part of the day involved toasting marshmallows over a fire using some long sticks. The marshmallows went golden brown and were sticky, but were absolutely delicious to eat.
We all felt that X-Platoon was our favourite school trip and would give it a 5 star rating!
Written by YEAR 3 pupils.
