Fire
The Salamander is the elemental of fire. Symbolizing transformation, resilience, and rebirth. I always thought a salamander was a strange choice, being an amphibian and all. I would have thought, cockroach. I wish I could have fire at every session. I love fire. Insurance fellow says nah.
Like many people, I grew up around fire (and I have the scars to prove it). I have a massive wealth of fire stories. Many of them with painful endings.
Luckily, when you work with 0-5 year olds they do most of their learning through play.
Anybody, who has ever had kids, worked with kids, or saw one once, knows they ALL dig lava. I don’t think I have ever met a kid in my life who wouldn’t jump on the couch to avoid lava. Thanks to that, Lava is a big part of my life. On the side of my ute I have painted a ‘burnt to a crisp” skeleton waving with a cheerful smile on his face. The skeleton stands within a river of lava (Volcano fresh).
When kids walk across wobbly stick bridges, and some kid yells out “the bark chips are Lava!”, I often add “and if you fall in you will get burnt to a crisp, and look like a burnt skeleton.” Falling into lava is one thing. Falling into lava, and burning to a crisp and becoming a burnt crispy skeleton certainly adds a sense of urgency to the crossing the bridge game.
Once the kids played a game where they would catch on fire from a nearby bonfire, and a friend would have to throw a blanket over them and put the fire out.
To badly paraphrase Vygotsky “through play a child makes sense of his world”