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Imaginative Play Making a Fire

Functions
Imaginary Play

Children use materials around the playground to make a pretend fire.

Details

At School 19

Players: 2-3
Boys and Girls
Age: 6
Props: Twigs and fronds

The players construct a circle of twigs and perhaps leaves. This is surrounded by green conifer twigs (there is a supporting photograph of this configuration). In a recorded interview with one of the players of this game we were given a realistic description of how a spark can be generated, with the correct hand movements related to spinning a stick over dry twigs to create heat etc. The informant explained that she managed to create the fire once, but 'it took quite a long while' she said (it was difficult to tell whether she was making it up or not). They called the game 'making a fire' and apparently played the game regularly but at least at school, they were only pretending to make a fire - they had no intention of actually lighting a fire. The making of the pretend fire was a component of the game.

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