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.
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