Girls Camp Certification: Building Candy Campfires

Building candy campfires is a fun and yummy way to teach fire building certification.

Last year for girl’s camp we set up a certification fair, or expo, kind of like if you’ve ever been to a career fair where you go to all of the different booths, learn about that career at the booth, and do something fun. We had a bunch of booths including this building candy camp fires booth and a roll first aid kit one. And if you need some more great certification ideas, check out my certification Olympics from a few years ago!

Building Candy Campfires

One of the certification requirements for 2nd years is to learn how to build two types of campfires. While I do not recommend ONLY building candy campfires, this candy campfire activity is a fun way to reinforce the skills in a creative and yummy way. Or a good way to teach the steps to building a campfire before the girls actually make them. It would be great for at camp (during a certification fair) or even a pre-camp activity where you teach girls skills they need to pass off certification at camp.

To setup the station, just print out these free printable candy campfire cards on white cardstock and laminate (this is my favorite laminator)! Then add bowls of each of the candies, the cards, and a package of napkins for the girls to use to build their campfires. For our fires, we used:

<<Download the entire set of Candy Fire Cards>>

Printable candy fire cards
Printable candy fire instruction sheet (with instructions for three types of fires)
White paper napkins
Fire pit ring – Smarties (you could also use Skittles or M&Ms if you aren’t worried about them melting)
Kindling – cut up Sour Straws
Tinder – Tootsie Rolls
Firewood – Chocolate licorice
Logs – Large Tootsie Rolls (you could also use Kit Kats if melting isn’t a concern)
Fire – Hot Tamales

We had one of our YCLs and leaders at the booth and they explained the process of building a fire (what each type of “wood” is, how to set it up, etc.) and the girls followed along with their candy. It was a great way for the girls to hear and visually use what they’ve heard.