Dandelion and Snail Preschool

Fire: Teaching Safety,

Twinfield Union School

Plainfield, Vermont

Telling Stories
Next year and in subsequent years our students
will participate in a program run by the North
Branch Nature Center called Educating Children
Outdoors. As part of the programme they will learn
to use fires to warm themselves as they spend cold
afternoons in the forest. Eventually they will learn
to be fire tenders, assuming responsibility for the
flame at the heart of their circle time. To begin
preparing our students for this and to make
connections with our camp themed dramatic play
area we have been weaving the theme of fire
throughout our days, building students
understanding of safety and benefit until we can
have a fire in our woodland circle.

Preparing for Fire

Educating Children Outdoors gives each size stick a name to help students remember the components
of building a successful fire. We began our study of fire by introducing these different sizes of stick
and their names. We added them to the dramatic play area as a means to build a camp fire, and as a
means to encourage sorting activities.

Dandelion and Snail Preschool

is the public preschool
program at Twinfield Union
School in Plainfield, Vermont.
Serving children from ages 3
to 5, with two half day
programs. The morning class
is partnered with Headstart.
Twinfield Union School
provides free breakfast and
lunch for all students.

Dandelion and Snail Preschool

Storytelling Beginnings

Children act out the story of the Mitten by Jan Brett

Using Personal Stories

Studying fire has given us the opportunity to introduce
a greater focus on personal storytelling. We sit around
a fake fire together, practicing our safety protocol,
teaching students to treat the fire with
respect. We use it indoors in a
controlled space, we use it outdoors in
our woodland space. We help them
practice the routines that will come
into play when the fire is real.

Stories are already an important part of

our classroom life; we read books every
morning, we take one story and carry it
forward, acting it out with props, we tell
the same stories inside our classroom
and outside in the woods. We began our
fire unit reading the story of Rainbow
Crow that tells of how the crow brought
fire from the spirit in the sky to melt the
snow that had buried the woodland
animals. In our circle time in the woods
we acted out the story, a white sheet
covered the children who were animals
and the crow had rainbow wings made
of cloth.

One of the teachers offers a story that

connects to our curriculum. This story
will be told and retold over the next
few weeks. As we tell our stories we
explore and promote the value of
personal experiences in nature. Moving
towards Spring, we give our students
more opportunities to create and tell
their own stories.

Connections to Vermont Early Learning Standards

Health and Safety Practices (Practicing being around a fire.)
Goal 3: Children develop the ability to identify unsafe situations, and use safe practices.
Reading Element 2a: Engagement with Literature and Informational Text (Storytelling)
Goal 1: Children develop book language and demonstrate comprehension
4. Retell or re-enact a familiar story in the correct sequence of a familiar storys major events with
prompting and support