Description:
The aim of this weeks activity was to teach the children how to make a fire, talk about how fire can be used, how to keep safe around fire and develop a deeper understanding of the emergency services.
Links to EYFS:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding of the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Activity:
Due to the nature of this weeks activity we introduced some new rules and different items relating to fire safety. This included learning to walk around the outside of base camp/the fire pit (as opposed to across it), not throwing items into the fire, keeping a fire blanket and a bucket of water close by to drown the fire and what was in our fire safety kit.
After our safety talk, we encouraged the children to collect thin, medium and thick sticks from around the site to use on the fire and we used secateurs to cut them to size. We built the fire in the centre of basecamp and discussed the materials used and the different ways to build a fire e.g. tepee, cross-ditch, lean-to and upside-down/inverted fire. We then used a fire steel to light the cotton wool and start the fire.
Once the fire got going we decided to cook some yummy things on it including: cinnamon and sultana apples, garlic bread, popcorn and pizzas which were all made by the children and tasted delicious!
Home Activity:
Do some cooking with your children. Talk about the different types of foods that can be cooked and try to experiment with different flavours and textures and different ways of cooking things: frying, baking, grilling, boiling etc.
When out and about with your children see if you can spot any fire engines and discuss where they might be going and how they can ensure that they can stay safe around fire.