If you want a fire or campfire cooking at your outdoor setting or Forest School you'll need a spark! The Dragons' Sneeze is the perfect tool to start you off. But where did the Dragons Sneeze come from? Find out with these origin stories of how the Dragons Sneeze became - as told to us by our amazingly creative customers!
The wonderful thing about the Dragons Sneeze is how every setting takes it to heart and incorporates it into their own group rituals and traditions. And every setting seems to create their own Dragons Sneeze origin stories.
In 2020 we ran a competition asking groups to share their Dragons Sneeze stories. We received some wonderfully imaginative responses, from grown ups & children, and we've been collecting Dragons Sneeze stories ever since - and are sharing some of our favourites here.
We invite you to use these stories as inspiration for asking your group - why is this fire starting tool called a Dragons Sneeze - how do you think it got it's name?
We loved this beautifully presented graphic story full of emotion & sensory details, with a heart warming conclusion, by Emily Rose.
Emily is a forest school level three leader that co-ordinates outdoor learning and forest school sessions in a local primary school. She hosts forest school toddler groups and small group skills sessions when she is not in school. She shares outdoor learning ideas on her instagram account: emilyrose9433. Follow her for plenty of forest school ideas & updates.
A happy rhyming poem about using a fire starter to create a dragon’s sneeze - made us smile!
Sent in by Sarah Rix, Forest School leader at Milford Pre School Plus holiday club in Hampshire. Created collaboratively by children who attend.
Sarah says "We run daily Forest School sessions alongside our pre-school and also run them in the holidays during holiday club, they are an integral part of our day. The children light fires, cook, use tools and enjoy the mud kitchen, rope play and construction areas. We love a dragon sneeze - enabling our two year olds to light our fires!
A wonderfully atmospheric and descriptive winter walk to the woods; a friendly Dragons sneeze and then it’s time to play!
Sent in by Sophie Lees, Forest School leader at The Little School Day Nursery in Sheet, Hampshire. "This is set in a beautiful location within the South Downs. From our nursery we have a short walk to one of our wonderful outdoor spaces. This is located in the middle of an Alpaca Farm. The children have a vast space to be free to play and learn. They have trees to climb and investigate, a mud kitchen to bake and willow tunnels to run through. In addition they are able to look and study the magnificent farm animals throughout the year as they graze around them."
Sophie kindly sent us a couple of photos of their beautiful site - you'll see them at the end of the story.
Click on the first image to view a slide show of the story.
A multi-media entry presenting a fun rhyming poem all about a characterful tree that marks the way to Forest School, and who he becomes at night.
Sent to us by Anna Bell who says "I use my Dragons Sneeze for all my forest school sessions, It’s the best fire steel and I’ve tried lots! The children love the Dragon’s sneeze story! I’m in Kent and run a business called Anna Outdoors Instagram: @annaoutdoors1
Click on the first image to view a slide show of images & the poem - and below that a 2-second video!
Achoo
A story told by it's three-year-old creator - a world where dragons and dinosaurs collide!
Storyteller Ciaran Mace, and his mum Kate Maclagan, live in North London. Kate's on Instagram as @kmaclagan
Below the written story you'll find a video of Ciaran telling it in his own words.
My dragon was having a party. There were eight dragons. The sunshine came out and was very bright so all the dragons sneezed and made a really big fire. The really big fire made the dinosaurs come back. There were predators and friendlies. The predators tried to get the dragons but the friendlies protected them. The predators were Terry (T-Rex), mosa (mosasaurus), carnotaurus and spinosaurus. The friendlies were stegosaurus, ankylosaurus, parasauolophus and brachiosaurus.’Ciaran, age 3
Ciarans dragons sneeze story
We had two entries sent in by Stephanie from Elements Forest and Garden School in Northern Ireland - and we loved them both!
Jonathan from Elements Forest School told us "we usually run weekly sessions in the Quarries Social Farm in Bangor and Hillsborough Forest Park. Stephanie Sim was the first person to train & qualify in Forest School when it arrived in NI. Jonathan McMurray has a diverse background including doing science shows and history tours for schools and both are teachers. We became hooked on outdoors learning after seeing how well it worked for our classes and set up last year and are loving it!
Both Larli and Fiona have been regular and stalwart attendees at our Bangor site in the Quarries Social Farm."
You can find Elements Forest & Garden School on FB here.
Photo shows Fiona & Elaria with Sephanie at Elements FS.
The Loudest Sneeze - a lovely hand written entry with illustration - a cautionary tale about why young dragons should avoid pepper.
Read the story below or click on the images to view a slide show of the original handwritten version.
Once upon a time there was a dragon that was making dinner but there was no pepper, so the dad dragon said to the little dragon go and buy some, so the little dragon went to the shop and he got the pepper and took it home but he forgot that his dad told him he shouldn’t sniff the pepper.
As soon as he got home he sniffed the pepper and he did the loudest sneeze, in the middle of the sneeze you could see a little spark that turned into a hot flame that travelled all over the house, everything turned into fire.
The dad dragon started to smell burning and he went to see what the weird smell was. He walked into the house trying to put out the huge flame.
The dad dragon said “You smelt the pepper, didn’t you?” The little dragon said quietly, “yes.”
The dad dragon got a bucket of water and said do you have the pepper? And by the way, you are never allowed again to touch pepper.
The end.
Handwritten, in the style of a traditional fairy tale, an epic exploration full of challenges and rich rewards.
Read the story below or click on the images to view a slide show of the original handwritten version.
To get a dragon to sneeze
Once upon a time there was a young prince in the king's palace who wanted to go and seek his fortune. So one day he went to the king and said "Father, may I go and explore the kingdom?" "Yes," said the king "but only if you slay Moondino the dragon and bring me his gold."
So the prince, Jack, set off to slay Moondino, but then he thought, how am I, Jack, going to kill a dragon? Then, like magic, he came across a hermit's hut, so he went in and said "Hermit, could you help me?" "What do you need?" asked the hermit. "I need to know how to slay a dragon" Jack replied. "Ahh" said the hermit "you must make it sneeze, then, you must get a wooden spear and hold it up by the fire, next you stab the dragon with the burning spear."
So, Jack thanked him and while he rode he thought, how do I make a Moondino sneeze? Then, after a few hours he came across another hermit's hut, so he went in and asked the hermit how to make a dragon sneeze. The hermit said "You blow sand on the dragon's toes, then he will sneeze." So Jack left the hermit and went on his way.
Eventually he came to a market, at the market he bought, a small bag of sand, some salt, pepper, sugar and bread.
After three more days Jack arrived at Moondino's cave, lucky for him the dragon was sleeping so he could quickly blow the sand and kill him. But, when Moondino sneezed he did not sneeze fire, he sneezed smoke! Jack was not going to give up yet though, next he tried bread crumbs, still smoke, then sugar, still smoke, next he tried salt, still smoke, so, as a last resort he tried pepper and Moondino did the biggest, fieriest, hottest sneeze ever, so hot it melted all the gold!
Jack knew he could never give all the melted gold to the king, he would have to go back to the hermit and ask how to change it back to coins. So he galloped down to the hermit's house and said "hermit, please tell me how to change melted gold into coins." "Well," said the hermit "you must find the dragon who owns the gold when he or she is sleeping, then you cut out the dragon's heart, put it in a sack and lay it on the gold, by morning all the gold will be in the sack as coins." "Thank you" said Jack, and turned to leave, but the hermit said "even after you you remove it's heart the dragon will still live." Then Jack left.
He arrived back at the cave by night fall, Moondino was sleeping. Jack got out his dagger, stabbed the dragon, cut his heart out and put it in a sack and layed it on the gold. In the morning, like the hermit said, all the gold was in the sack, all Jack had to do was slay the dragon. So he blew pepper on the dragon's toes, the dragon sneezed, Jack caught some of the flames on a spear and stabbed Moondino. The dragon was dead.
So, the young prince packed his gold and rode home. When he got home he gave the gold to his father, the king, and lived happily ever after.
The end.
This is our version of the story. This video was written and created by Muddy Facse director Liz Edwards and her children during lockdown in 2020.
Dragons Sneeze
Fire lighting and campfire cooking can be a wonderful part of the outdoor experience for Early Years and Primary school children. The Dragons Sneeze is a fire steel & striker we designed and created especially for Forest School groups and practitioners - easy for all ages and abilities to make the perfect spark. Find out how and why the Dragons Sneeze became...
Read More about Dragons Sneeze
Fires: traditional flint & steel
Both simple and complicated at the same time - here’s the what & how of flint & steel fire lighting.
Read More about Fires: traditional flint & steel
Fires: how to use a fire steel
All you need to know about fire steels (ferrous rods) and some top tips on how to use them.
Dragon Sneeze is a popular fire lighting option, ideal for young to old. It has had particular success with early years and SEN. This amazing tool makes a fantastic present for any outdoor enthusiast or in fact anyone with a log ...
The Dragons Sneeze has had particular success supporting younger children/ early years & SEND in Forest School & outdoor learning sessions. The Dragons Sneeze is one of Muddy Faces most popular products designed by us for our customers its success has been ...