Introduction

The rationale for the project was:

• To create a community connection with a froebelian approach through songs.
• Implementing our fire pit in a safe and controlled manner.
• Ensuring staff feel confident to build and light fires with children.

Creating real life experiences for children was always at the fore of Froebel’s principles. He believed having hands on experiences was much more meaningful than learning from a text book. With this in mind, Community Song around the Fire was established. We looked at many documents which supported the need for high quality learning within the outdoor environment Such as My World Outdoors (2016), CfE and Outdoor Woodland Learning (OWL) Scotland.

Developing practitioner’s confidence was crucial in order to get the experience right for the children and their families. As a team we fully support our colleagues with Career-long professional learning (CLPL) to expand their knowledge and development, specifically with the fire pit as it has an element of risk and danger.

Context

To strengthen my professional knowledge, I read current documents and articles from My World Outdoors (2016), Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and Woodland Outdoor Learning (OWL), Friedrich Froebel, A Critical Introduction to Key Themes and Debates. Bruce, T. (2021).
By engaging with professional reading I was enthused and had a clear understanding of what I needed to do to plan a successful project. My aim was to ensure high quality learning opportunities for our children and their families through fire pit experiences and these experiences to be embedded in our practice. By building capacity of the team this will ensure that the project is sustainable for years to come.
Through observations, I noticed how the children engaged in the cabin garden. The area was used as a nature garden for children to plant, dig, fill up buckets, climb trees, swing and be at one with nature. There had previously been an area created for fire pit experiences with the children. Unfortunately due to staffing and confidence fire pit experiences had not happened in recent years. This was something that I was keen to reintroduce to our setting and provide opportunities for our children to experience the joy of building and sitting around a fire.
I consulted with staff, children and families about how we might create a safe fire pit experience. In doing so, this gave me the information that I needed to inform my practice and begin working with the children on the project.

Methodology

The first stage of the project was to meet with the staff team to gauge levels of confidence in leading a fire pit experience. It became apparent that some practitioners felt more confident than others. With this in mind I organised professional learning for practitioners to build confidence in setting up a fire and giving everyone an opportunity to take turns to cook on the fire. In doing so, this alleviated any fears and concerns. This was an opportunity to speak with colleagues and team up with a more confident member of staff to help support practitioners who needed guidance to deliver a fire pit session.
The children were invited to make our fire pit safety rules to keep us all safe around the fire. These rules were embedded through many unlit fire experiences for the children prior to having a lit fire. In doing so this ensured that all children had a clear understanding of the importance of being safe around the fire area. As an inclusive nursery we believe all children should have the opportunity to the same experiences. To ensure we provide emotional harmony we provide children with one to one support when required around the fire.

During a staff meeting it was highlighted that the children often sang around the fire and liked making up their own songs. This led to the idea of our songbook being created in partnership with our children, practitioners and our families.

For this project all children and staff will invited to participate and families were invited to join Fire Pit sessions with their child.

Throughout this project I conducted an observation on how the area was utilised before the project took place and again afterwards and then shared my findings with the stakeholders. During the implementation stage of the project the team held a coffee and chat session for parents and carers to speak about Adventurous play, we discussed the fire pit project and the high quality learning experiences that is being delivered to our children in hosting the fire pit sessions. The feedback from parents was mainly positive with only one parent having doubts around how safe her child would be around the fire. “I worry my child won’t listen and follow the rules.” We invited the parent in to see first hand how a fire pit session was conducted.

“I am impressed with how well my child listens and enjoys sitting around the fire. My anxieties of the fire has gone because I’ve seen it for myself.”

Consent for photographs and observations to be shared from stakeholders were gathered through consent forms which have been kept in a locked unit for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) purposes and will be disposed of once the project has been completed.