About this game

Fireworks get their colours from metals, the same colours as flame tests in the lab. Three fireworks go up over a town by a lake and burst in one colour. The class decides which metal it was, and someone taps it: lithium, sodium, potassium, calcium or copper.

A wrong guess sends up a firework of the metal they said, labelled with its name, next to the mystery one again. The class can see that sodium is yellow, not lilac, and try again. A right answer says the colour and one fact about the metal, such as "Salt is sodium chloride. A pinch of salt in a flame turns it yellow."

In What colour? it works the other way round. A card in the sky shows the element, like the periodic table. The class picks the colour they think it will burn, then the firework goes up and shows them.

At the end of the round there's a finale, and the score shows how many the class got right first time.

Free play

Pick one or two metals and a shape (ball, ring, heart, willow or crackle), then tap the sky, or drag across it, and fireworks go off there. Magnesium makes white glitter and iron makes gold sparks. Two metals put both colours in one firework, with two exceptions from real chemistry:

• Strontium and copper together make purple, which is how firework makers get it.
• Sodium and potassium together come out yellow, because sodium's yellow hides potassium's lilac.

Choices

• Questions. Which metal? (see the colour, name the metal), What colour? (see the metal, pick the colour), or half of each.
• Metals. Five: lithium, sodium, potassium, calcium and copper. Seven adds strontium (red) and barium (green).
• How many. 5, 10 or 20 fireworks. Every metal comes up once before any comes up again.
• Colour names. For a class with a child who is colour blind. Each firework has its colour written on it, and the question asks "Which metal gives a lilac flame?", the way exam questions do.

Good for

• Learning the flame test colours for GCSE chemistry
• A starter before a flame test practical, or a recap after one
• Bonfire Night, or the last lesson before a holiday