Playing with fire

What is your reaction when 'exploring fire' is proposed for an early years setting? 'Dangerous', 'Too many health and safety issues', 'Not something I would do' are all common responses from practitioners. But activities involving fire outdoors can be both safe and exciting.

Health and safety

As with any activity you undertake, it is of course important to consider the health and safety issues. If care is taken from the start there is no reason that fire cannot become a regular part of your outdoor activities, especially cooking outdoors.

First, with any fire activity, make sure you have a suitable space.

Considerations should include:

* Is there a flat area, with nothing nearby that could catch light?

* If the wind blows strongly or changes direction, will this cause any problems?

* Is there enough room for the numbers taking part to be able to stand well back if necessary?

* Is the area able to be secured so that only the children taking part have access to it?

* Do you need to protect the ground with a fire blanket?

* Can you clear up the mess left behind when you have finished?

Make sure that anything hot is labelled clearly.

Then just consider all the things that you would think about when cooking indoors - that children are aware that things are hot when they are cooking, or have just been cooked, knives are sharp and must be used carefully, and they must listen to the adults when they are being told what to do. Also check to see if there are any foods to avoid because of children's allergies.

Education and play value

Using fire in a controlled way offers lots of exciting teaching and learning opportunities. An important one is how dangerous and powerful fire can be. Young children need to know that fire must be treated with respect, as it can hurt and destroy people and things. But through these activities children also learn that fire can be used in a positive way: to tell a story, to learn about a historical event, to celebrate a special occasion or to share an experience with a large group.

There are other ways that you could think about using fire outside.

Consider the festivals and events that use fire - the Sikh festival of Diwali, the Buddhist ceremony of Loy Krathong, Holi celebrated by the Hindu faith, and Up Helly A in Shetland, are all marked with fire and light in some way. Reflecting local culture, or learning about faiths not represented in your community, becomes easier with events such as these.

This can also be a good way of making links with parents and other members of the local community and drawing on their knowledge and experience.

Cooking with fire is exciting - you use all your senses to experience it.

You can see the smoke coming out of the barbecue and the coals becoming red hot, you can feel the heat from the fire, you can hear the fizzing and bubbling, you can smell the food, and then you get to taste the results.

Children can link their experiences in school with those at home - what do they cook on their barbecues at home? Do they have a different name for a barbecue?

Banana barbecues

You may already see children playing at having a barbecue as they act out what they did at home over the weekend with their families. So why not use this as a starting point for a practical session outdoors?

This is an activity that we have used many times on training events with early years practitioners. It is something that very few practitioners have tried, and yet they regularly cook indoors with their children. They soon realise that most of the safety issues are the same outdoors as indoors and that, with planning and care, it is something that can easily be attempted in virtually all outdoor spaces.

Barbecuing bananas can be done with small groups of children - maybe four or five at a time. You can either use a pre-made mini-barbecue, or make your own using something like a turkey roasting tray with your own charcoal and lighters. Both work well, but you will need to remove the grate beforehand if you want to barbecue bananas.

Light the barbecue about 20 minutes before you wish to use it and make sure that it is in a secure location that is clearly labelled as being hot.

In the meantime, make lengthways slits down the centre of each banana, not going right through to the lower skin. Children can push chocolate buttons into the slit, counting how many they can fit in. The bananas are then wrapped in foil before being carefully placed into the coals. Large barbecue tongs are most effective for this. After about eight minutes (depending on the heat of your coals), turn each banana, using the tongs.

Wait another five or six minutes and remove the bananas from the fire.

Help the children to unwrap the foil. With their spoons they can delve into the bananas, now filled with melted chocolate.

There are lots of other delicious things you can cook - try fruit, either chopped in small pieces and wrapped in foil packages, or laid directly on to a grill, corn on the cob, or vegetable kebabs. You may even be able to cook things you have grown in your own grounds. It is a good idea to use things that will not cause any problems if they do not get thoroughly cooked!

Branching out

Other linked play and learning opportunities include:

* Discussing what cooks well on the barbecue and what doesn't, and what other methods of cooking there are.

* Using the opportunity to try new foods, to grow some on the windowsill or in the nursery grounds, and to learn about foods that different cultures eat.

* Re-enacting bonfires and barbecues and playing out the different roles within the stories or situations.

* Drawing pictures of the fire - possibly using charcoal left behind after the fire has gone out.

* Talking about fire safety.

Above all, these will be experiences that will be memorable for the children. They will be positive experiences of nursery or school - working in small or large groups, and joining with others to become part of something they will always recall.

The children will remember the smell of the barbecue, the taste of the food and the excitement of fire in the grounds. This will also make it an experience practitioners will remember. With a little extra thought and planning it can be a truly wonderful way to use your outdoor area. NW Further information

* The national school grounds charity Learning Through Landscapes can be contacted on 01962 846 258, www.ltl.org.uk.

LONDON'S BURNING

This is an annual event at the Coombes Infant and Nursery School, in Arborfield near Reading. The children share the story of the Great Fire of London and then, working with their parents at home, make models of Tudor buildings out of cardboard boxes. You could create buildings within your setting, with the children working together to make just one or a number of buildings.

At Coombes a street plan of London is drawn out in the grounds and the houses are positioned on it. Parents and grandparents join the children to see the headteacher set fire to the baker's shop in Pudding Lane. Everyone looks on in awe as the fire spreads toward their buildings. Children watch as, in turn, their buildings catch fire and burn to the ground, helping to spread the fire right through the city.

The children learn about the power of fire as they look at what it leaves behind. It is an experience they, and their parents and grandparents, will never forget.

Another approach if your outdoor space is limited would be to read the story of Matilda (who told such dreadful lies) by Hillaire Belloc, and set fire to just one house.