The news is all about bushfires at the moment and if you live in a bushfire area it is important to involve children in your plan of action. It is not only people who live in areas at risk of fire, but also families on holidays who have needed evacuation to safety. Storytelling and play activities can be useful ways of giving children facts and safety hints about fires. Here are some play activity ideas:

• Provide a bag or pillowcase for children to pack with essential clothes and toys
• use soft toys to practice gathering animals to take safely in baskets to the car
• make a game of packing and evacuating at a special signal
• talk about injured animals and how people can help them
• pretend to save animals and take them to a Vet or wildlife carer
• provide bandages for children to bandage toy animals
• provide orange paint and black paint for fire pictures
• talk about smoke hazards and wearing masks and provide simple masks for children to get accustomed to wearing them
• set up sand play area with twigs, plastic animals, water, and model people. Use orange crepe paper for flames and allow children to knock down the flames with the garden hose
• use a feltboard to make a bushfire story with felt pieces of equipment, trees, animals and people
• search on the internet or in the library for stories about fires and how to prepare. Here is a link to some traditional Indigenous stories:https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=646