in the moment
Keep safety equipment and tools in good condition and in one place so that you can provide fire activities spontaneously.
After a windy day, go scavenging for fire fuel: leaves for tinder, tiny twigs for kindling, thicker twigs and branches to keep the fire going and perhaps a big branch that will need sawing up. Find a dry place to store these items.
Keep a few cartons of long matches stored securely indoors. When children express interest in fire, use the matches to demonstrate safe lighting and extinguishing. Because fire needs oxygen to ignite and burn, the match can be put out by dipping it in water or sand, crushing it under a shoe, using a candle snuffer or placing an inverted glass over the flame. Fire needs fuel to burn, so demonstrate this by placing the lit match on the ground and allowing it to burn out; then place a lit match on a paper towel – it will set fire to the paper, but once that ‘fuel’ has burned out, the fire will stop.
Use a tealight in a ceramic dish to show how some materials burn and others don’t, yet still become hot. This is a useful way to reinforce safety messages, such as keeping hair and clothing away from fire and not touching anything that’s been in fire.
quick wins
Fire play doesn’t have to involve flames. Ask families if they can donate incense sticks or insect repellents, and use charcoal on a barbecue or cooking fire to demonstrate heat being generated without a flame.- Source an infrared thermometer (a temperature gun). Children love testing the temperature of objects outdoors and they can experience an example of temperature extremes by aiming the thermometer at a bowl of ice, then at their own forehead or chest, and then at your fire.
- Make fiery outdoor art: paper plate ‘bonfires’ with found twigs and tissue paper ‘flames’; mimic firework displays using chalk and paint, splattered onto Tarmac or black sugar paper – stones and twigs add texture.
- Create your own diyas ready for Diwali – make simple clay coil pots, allow to dry and decorate, then place them in a circle in a suitable outdoor space, put real or battery tealights into them and light each one.
planning ahead – prepping for fiery fun
It is not necessary to have a qualification to offer fiery activities in your setting. What you do need to have is a robust risk-benefit assessment, plenty of practice before carrying out the activity with children, permission from the landowner/manager, and insurance that covers having a fire at your setting. Our website has a variety of resources and guidance: https://www.plloutdoors.org.uk/ey-advice.
- Start by auditing your outdoor space: where could you safely offer various types of fire activity in controlled environments? Map your outdoors and clearly mark on the areas you have risk-benefit assessed as suitable.
- Essential fire safety equipment includes: a galvanised bucket (for water or sand); a fire blanket; a water fire extinguisher; adult-sized welding/stove gloves; a stick or poker for safely moving items around in the fire, strong barbecue tongs, and elastic hairbands for long hair.
- Write a simple emergency plan for outdoor fire; make it visual so children better understand it.
- Fire needn’t be off-limits for babies and toddlers. Simple safety measures will allow them to experience the heat, light, sounds and smells of a camp fire or watch the flickering flames of a set of Diwali lanterns, from a safe distance.
enhanced provision
Ask your local fire station for a visit from firefighters (and appliance if possible). They’ll demonstrate their safety gear, talk about fire safety and answer children’s questions. Seeing a real firefighter, in full gear, is a memorable way to reinforce safety messages and reduce children’s fears should they see a real fire being fought in their neighbourhood.
Useful extra equipment and tools include clay diyas or tealight holders, battery-operated tealights, fire steels and strikers (find at bushcraft and forest school shops), fireproof surfaces such as baking trays, cooking pots and utensils, a folding grill to go over a campfire, simple food items such as pre-cooked cocktail sausages, marshmallows, apple or banana slices and popcorn – see the Muddy Faces website for instructions on creating a ‘shoogler’: a popcorn-maker for the fire.
Incorporate fiery festivals into your year’s planning for outdoors; in addition to Guy Fawkes night and Diwali, you could add the beautiful Buddhist Loy Krathong festival, Hindu Holi celebrations and Up Helly Aa, a Scottish tradition. Japan and China also feature fire in religious or cultural events, as do many Middle Eastern countries – you are bound to find a few that will resonate with your setting’s community. Most fire festivals are rooted in the concept of victory of light over darkness/good over evil, and there are plenty of story books to accompany these activities.
Finish an autumn or winter afternoon campfire with a couple of sachets of Mystical Fire. The sachets contain powdered elements and minerals, which burn with mesmerising and brightly coloured blues, reds, greens and turquoise flames. They last around 30 minutes and the colours change over time – but although it’s beautiful, this is very much an adult-led activity.
continuous provision – role playing and modelling
Continuous provision can help children develop an understanding of how to enjoy and stay safe around fire – role play and modelling are two excellent ways to do this.
Model safe behaviour by explaining to children what you are doing as you do it – e.g., ‘I’m putting the big red gloves on because sparks might spring up.’
Facilitate firefighter role play with dressing-up clothing, toy extinguishers and small-world ‘emergency services’ set-ups. Keep non-fiction books and posters about fire and firefighters with the role-play resources, as well as picturebooks and story starters that explore the many ways fire is used in celebrations.
Children will be used to fire drills in your setting; add outdoor fire drill role plays to this routine. It’s crucial to explore emergency situations with children, and this can be done without frightening them; talk about how to use the fire blanket and bucket of water, and practise ‘stop, drop and roll’ – perhaps with added pretend fire hose and fabric ‘fire’.
If you have a space suitable for a fire circle or fire pit, use it for everyday play too – familiarity is a great way of helping children manage their reactions if they are faced with an unexpected situation when there is a fire lit.
Glossary: Fire, burn, flame, spark, extinguish
Tinder, kindling, fuel, oxygen, water
We have not featured campfire cooking in this STEM article as Nursery World has covered this several times in recent years, and you can find advice, guidance and ideas with a search on the website: https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/search?query=campfire
