Burning cardboard houses in Year 2 has become an annual event. In class the children have been learning about The Great Fires of London and Gateshead, during these lessons they have built their own street of houses using cardboard, paper, sticks and straw. They learned how the fire ripped through these buildings, jumping from house to house, as the wind fanned the flames. During their Forest School session, Miss Rowe and Mr McMann set fire to their “street” to see this in action. Luckily the rain held off and a light breeze caught the flames. The children were surprised to see how easily the flames moved along the line, just when they thought it had died down another gust reignited the fire until eventually the whole street had burned down to ashes.
The children were intrigued to then walk along the line of ashes, feeling that there was still a lot of heat emanating and were surprised as small sections burst back into flame as unburnt materials caught again.
Forest School uses fires only where deemed appropriate to the learners, and always dependent on completion of a risk assessment.
