Scouts should know how to build a fire. I am always amazed how many kids don’t understand the concept of using tinder and small sticks. This snack will help introduce the concept.
This would be a good activity for Webelos about to head out on their first camp out.
Troop Instructors could also use this snack to teach fire building skills to newly crossed over Scouts. Demonstrate in the meeting room with this method and then let them go outside and have a try at doing it themselves.
Be creative with the ingredients. I’ve suggested some, but there are lots of other possibilities. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.
Edible Campfires
Ingredients
- Pretzel rods
- Pretzel sticks
- Chow mein noodles
- Shredded wheat, shredded (the full size type works better than the spoon size)
- Candy corn
- Red hots
- Yellow, orange, and red fruit rollups, cut into small strips
- Paper plates
Directions
- Using the pretzel rods as logs, pretzel sticks and chow mein noodles as sticks, and shredded wheat as tinder, arrange the ingredients like you are building a fire on the paper plate.
- “Light” the fire by adding candy corn, red hots, and bits of fruit rollups
- Enjoy!
Brilliant! I can only imagine that 60 years from now, some old duffer is telling his great-grandchildren, “this is how I learned to build a campfire.”
Hope you don’t mind, but I reposted this on my blog. We are a small pack so we meet as a large den, so that makes finding crafts that work for everyone difficult. We used this as a general craft that everyone could do. It was a little messy, but it worked out great.
No problem! Just include a link back to my site please.
Here are two similar ones that we got from http://www.lakesandsdistrict.org
Edible Fire #1
Use frosting to assemble the following items into an edible
fire:
Large cookie = base
Peanut M&Ms = rock ring
Potato sticks = kindling
Pretzel sticks = logs
Candy corn = fire
Tootsie rolls = fuel wood
Granola = dirt
Small cups = water buckets
Edible Fire #2
Napkin = base
Small Marshmallows = fire ring
Flaked Coconut = kindling
Red Hots or Raisins = coals
Candy Corn = flames
Pretzel Sticks = logs
Small cup of blue Kool-Aid =water to put out the fire
We have done this a lot with the boys at different levels, now starting the girls in AHG. First we check the area(no over hanging branches, etc.) Then Clean the area of debris (plate clean? My husband prefers building on a graham cracker you wipe down and add frosting or Nutella to).Be prepared to put it out before you start with water and dirt(dirt is hot cocoa mix) in Dixie cups to the side, then often my husband will put down a layer of chocolate frosting as the dirt. This is especially helpful for the younger ones as things stick better. Then mini marshmallows or m&m’s for the rock circle, pretzel sticks for logs, potato sticks for tinder and coconut for kindling. Easy to see size differences this way. Then cut fruit roll-ups for fire. Then explain that scouts never leave a fire unattended.So we better put it out. Grab the hot cocoa mix and douse the fire. Enjoy eating. Kids often ask if they can build another “Teepee style? or I can try a shelf Mr. G?!”