KINDLING A FLAME — preparing for The Campfire Kids Church this coming Sunday

 This Sunday (with Bonfire Night coming up) we'll be thinking about lighting fires, and in our Activity the kids will be learning how to light a fire.

But what about kids who are too little to do that, or who have no garden and no fireplace in their home? 

Well, if you are that kid, you can still enjoy learning how to light a fire in our Activity on Sunday, in case you ever need to light a fire for yourself one day, but meanwhile here is an activity especially for you.

Even if you do have a fire place in your house and one in your garden, this is still fun to do.

First, you have to go outside! In the blustery autumn weather, lots of leaves have fallen, and there are certain to be some on the ground near where you live.

Have you ever noticed how autumn leaves look a bit like flames?

Look. This is the tree outside my window. 

Do you think the leaves look like fiery flames? I do.

So, when you go outside, pick up some of the most flame-like leaves you can find. It's been raining a lot, so they might be wet. That doesn't matter.

The next bit is to make sure they dry flat.

Spread a drying-up cloth somewhere flat. Mine is on the kitchen floor by our food shelves.

Lay your leaves, all separate, on the cloth.

Put another cloth on top.

Place some heavy things on top. This will make sure the leaves go flat instead of curly, and the dampness in the leaves will go into the cloth.

Leave them there for a couple of days. A couple of weeks would be even better, but a couple of days will do it.

When you go back to them, they will be flat, like this.

Get a piece of paper or card (cut off the back of a box for this, if you like), and some crumply scraps of packing paper.

You need some kind of glue. A glue stick is only kind we have, but any kind of craft glue should be okay. If you have glitter glue, that would be great for this.

Stick the crumply packing paper on, to be the firewood. Keep it crumply.

Cut the stalks off the leaves because flames don't have stalks.

Stick the leaves on to look like flames.

Stick the stalks on to look like firewood.

I cut open a plastic file wallet to put mine in, just in case the leaves all fall off (so far they stayed on okay). 

Then I hung it up on the wall.

I think that makes a great fire, don't you?

Very atmospheric (long word!)

If you make one for yourself, I hope you have fun, but even if you don't want to, I hope you enjoy the lovely colours of the autumn leaves, and the wild, blustery wind.

See you on Sunday, kids.